The Afghan government hopes to hold talks with Taliban representatives in Saudi Arabia in the coming weeks, according to a senior Afghan official, in a move that threatens to cloud already delicate and fragile steps to negotiate an end to the United States' longest war.
The opening of a Taliban office in the Gulf Arab nation of Qatar is contingent on the renunciation of international terror and the backing of a peace process to end the Afghan conflict, an American diplomat said Tuesday.
The Taliban will permit a program of polio vaccination in the volatile Afghanistan-Pakistan border area, their spokesman told CNN in an e-mail Tuesday, after consistent pressure over the issue.
The United States could inch closer next week toward peace talks with the Taliban if Afghan President Hamid Karzai blesses the negotiations, senior administration officials said Thursday.
The Taliban is opening an office in Qatar, which may lead to negotiations with the U.S. CNN's Jill Dougherty reports.
A federal court sentenced a Pakistani citizen to more than four years for providing false documentation and attempting to smuggle a person he thought was a Taliban member into the United States.
Authorities found the bodies of 15 Pakistani security personnel in the country's northwest tribal region, officials said Thursday.
Qatar, as diplomats say, likes to "punch above its weight." This arid peninsula in the Persian Gulf is smaller than Connecticut but played a leading role in helping Libyan rebels oust Moammar Gadhafi and has been at the heart of Arab League sanctions against Syria. It's now facilitating talks on the Afghan conflict by allowing the Taliban to open a liaison office in its capital, Doha.
The Afghan Taliban are prepared to open an "office outside the country for talks with foreigners," a purported spokesman for the movement said in a statement released Tuesday.
Pakistani Taliban factions and their allies have set up a council of elders in hopes of coordinating efforts against NATO troops in Afghanistan, a spokesman said Monday.
Afghanistan will accept the presence of a Taliban liaison office in Qatar but under strict ground rules forbidding foreign intervention in peace talks, the government peace council said Tuesday.
The Taliban are claiming responsibility for a suicide car bombing Saturday that struck a military housing area in northwest Pakistan, a spokesman for the group said.
Afghanistan has withdrawn its ambassador to Qatar for consultations after the Gulf state began talking to the Afghan Taliban about setting up a representative office there, a senior Afghan official said Wednesday.
A Marine Corps cameraman gives us a rare glimpse of Marines fighting off at Taliban attack in Afghanistan.
Hashim Khan, an anti-Taliban tribal leader, was killed in northwest Pakistan on Wednesday when a bomb hidden in his car detonated, police said.
A new video emerges that appears to show the Taliban preparing a big attack in June. CNN's Nick Paton Walsh reports.
An eighth-grade girl was awarded Pakistan's first National Peace Prize Thursday for her online diary reporting on the Taliban's ban on education for girls.
Republican presidential candidate Jon Huntsman suggested a total defeat of the Taliban during CNN's Republican debate on national security issues Tuesday night .--- with Huntsman's comments standing in stark contrast to the reality of the continuing attacks by the group in the country.
Aggressive tweeting between NATO and the Taliban leaves many wondering. CNN'S Nick Patton Walsh reports.
After a decade of lethal combat, NATO and the Taliban are now fighting over something else: the last word.
A Taliban-affiliated website has released video that purports to show suicide bombers who targeted Kabul's Intercontinental Hotel in June preparing for the attack in the hills and studying a tiny model of the hotel in detail.
A Taliban-affiliated website published on Sunday what it claimed was a leaked document containing confidential government security plans for a vital meeting of tribal elders in Kabul next week, one that is set to discuss Afghanistan's long-term relationship with the United States and possible peace talks with the insurgency.
Eleven people died after a roadside bomb exploded in the northwestern Afghanistan province of Badghis, officials said Tuesday.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Thursday the United States would be willing to negotiate with the leader of Afghanistan's Taliban if he met conditions that have been laid out.
A leader of an anti-Taliban militia was killed in a bomb attack in northwest Pakistan on Tuesday, a Pakistani police official told CNN.
Amid the 1,200-page military investigation into the August crash in Afghanistan's Wardak province that killed 38 people, including 22 Navy SEALS, are photos of the helicopter.
A road side bomb blast killed an anti-Taliban fighter and wounded three others in Pakistan's Khyber Agency, an official said.
A roadside blast killed nine Afghan National Army soldiers and wounded four in eastern Afghanistan, a provincial official said Sunday.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai dismissed calls for negotiations with the Taliban, saying neighboring Pakistan is the key to peace talks with the insurgency, the presidential press service said in a statement Saturday.
Suzanne Malveaux interviews Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai about working towards a peace agreement with the Taliban.
A Taliban attack in southern Afghanistan killed eight officers and completely destroyed a police post, a provincial spokesman said Wednesday.
Afghan lawmaker Abdullah Abdullah discusses the significance of Burhanuddin Rabbani's death.
The assassination of an Afghan leader spearheading the reconciliation process with the Taliban clearly was an insurgent attack, officials say, but at present it's not clear who carried it out.
The Pakistani Taliban declared Friday they will target the weddings and funerals of anyone involved in pro-government activity against them.
A school bus loaded with children came under rocket and small arms fire near Peshawar Tuesday, killing the driver and three children and injuring 16 others, police said.
CNN's Nic Robertson takes a look at how Afghanistan has changed in the ten years since 9/11.
Exactly 10 years ago, a brutal civil war was being fought in Afghanistan as rebels advanced on the Taliban in the capital, Kabul.
As the 10th anniversary of al Qaeda's attack on the United States approaches, Taliban militants struck a coalition base in Afghanistan on Saturday, killing one person and wounding 10 others.
The Taliban have accused the United States of killing tens of thousands of Afghans and brutally torturing others in a defiant statement marking the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks against the United States.
The Taliban has claimed responsibility for the abduction of 30 teenage boys who were seized from Pakistan's tribal region during an outing last week.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai has ordered the release of a group of would-be child suicide attackers ranging between ages 8 and 17.
The death toll in a Pakistani mosque attack has risen to at least 51, a local government official said Saturday, a day after the bombing during prayers.
Afghan authorities on Tuesday raised the number of those killed by a suicide attack at a fuel depot near Kandahar International Airport to four people.
Six militants storm governor's compound in Parwan province after a suicide blast, killing at least 19 people.
At least six militants -- strapped with explosives-laden vests -- stormed a provincial governor's compound in central eastern Afghanistan Sunday, killing at least 19 other people, officials said.
The American commandos who died when their helicopter crashed in eastern Afghanistan were targeting a Taliban commander directly responsible for attacks on U.S. troops, military officials with knowledge of the operation said Sunday.
The Taliban claims responsibility for the suicide bombing that killed Kandahar's mayor. CNN's David Ariosto reports.
CNN's David Ariosto reports on an investigation into a possible contract scandal in Afghanistan.
The United States on Thursday said it welcomes a U.N. decision to remove sanctions against 14 former Taliban leaders in what is perhaps the latest signal of its willingness to reconcile with militants who break ties with al Qaeda.
Video released by the Taliban shows men believed to be Pakistani police officers fatally shot. CNN's Reza Sayeh reports.
Graphic video footage released Monday by the Taliban shows the execution of at least 16 men believed to be Pakistani police officers -- a new escalation in the fight for control of a pivotal country in the global war over Islamic extremism.
In the latest sign of international efforts to forge a reconciliation process with militants in Afghanistan, the United Nations Security Council has removed sanctions on 14 former Taliban leaders.
The Taliban has killed four members of an international landmine clearing agency working in western Afghanistan, an official with the group said Monday.
Two militants and a passerby were killed in a rare clash between security forces and Taliban fighters in Pakistan's tribal belt, officials and a witness told CNN Wednesday.
Eight people died when a cargo plane chartered by NATO crashed into the mountains in Afghanistan, a provincial governor said Wednesday.
A day after Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the United States is in preliminary talks with the Taliban in Afghanistan to quell the violence, experts say don't expect miracle results.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates talks to CNN's Candy Crowley about "lower-level" talks with the Taliban going on now.
A bomb blast targeting the home of a volunteer anti-Taliban militia member in northwest Pakistan on Monday killed three people, including a child, police told CNN. The apparent target of the attack was not injured.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for a suicide car bomb attack Sunday that targeted a NATO convoy in northern Afghanistan's Kunduz province, killing at least three people and wounding 11, a spokesman for the provincial governor's office said.
The U.N. Security Council split a key sanctions list on al Qaeda and the Taliban on Friday with an eye toward reconciliation in Afghanistan.
Recently, both The Washington Post and the German magazine Der Spiegel have reported on meetings between U.S. officials and representatives of the Taliban that have taken place in Germany to discuss some form of peace negotiations.
CNN Security Analyst Peter Bergen discussses the future of al Qaeda.
At least three dozen road workers in southeastern Afghanistan were killed early Thursday when Taliban forces attacked their camp, a local Afghan official said.
The Taliban have long been known as haters of modern technology, certainly the kind that comes out of the Western world they revile.
Militants staged attacks on government buildings in the restive southern Afghan city of Kandahar on Saturday, a brazen Taliban onslaught designed to seize or kill the provincial governor.
Does the Taliban or al Qaeda pose a greater threat in a post-bin Laden world? CNN's Mohammed Jamjoom reports.
Once the furor died down after the jailbreak was discovered, it was the Americans' and Afghans' turn to start digging. The only way to find the tunnel that had led at least 475 Taliban to freedom was to burrow down a trench inside the jail courtyard along the length of the outside wall.
Hundreds of Afghan Taliban escaped jail via a narrow tunnel to freedom. CNN's Nick Paton Walsh gets inside the tunnel.
Secy. of State Clinton hopes bin Laden's victims feel justice has been served, but nothing can make up for their loss.
A 12-year-old suicide bomber killed three other people, including a district council head, and armed attackers shot to death two police officers Sunday, the first day of a Taliban spring offensive.
The Taliban said Saturday it is launching a new offensive against foreign troops and Afghan security forces in what it calls the tenth year of "sacred Jihad against all foreign invaders."
Hundreds of Taliban escape an Afghan prison in the heart of Kandahar. CNN's Nick Paton Walsh reports.
The head of a Kandahar prison where a mass escape occurred this week was among 20 people arrested Thursday on suspicion of assisting the jailbreak, a senior prison official told CNN.
Nine Americans are killed when a man opens fire at an Afghan compound. CNN's Nick Paton Walsh reports.
Taliban militants captured a remote district in northeastern Afghanistan early Monday, officials said.
Taliban fighters kidnapped 50 people -- including police officers -- in northeastern Afghanistan on Sunday, police said.
Seven men, including two Americans, have been charged for allegedly conspiring to sell surface-to-air missiles and cocaine to Taliban fighters in Afghanistan, according to a U.S. Justice Department statement released Monday.
A recent lull in Taliban resistance will not last, says a top commander who adds that come spring, the insurgents will be back on the offensive in Afghanistan, perhaps with assassination teams.
The Taliban claimed responsibility Friday for a blast that killed eight people at a market in the Afghan capital that is popular with international residents.
In a recent trip to Pakistan to report on the recent spike in the region's violence and bloodshed, I heard over and over the same sentiment from people on the ground; America's war on terror is falling flat on its face.
CNN's Arwa Damon visits the one school in Afghanistan's Andar district under government control.
Walking into the room with three grinning former Taliban relaxing in on aging corduroy covered sofa was a bit of shock.
The Taliban movement is disputing a U.N. report that asserts the number of civilians slain by insurgents has risen but those killed by the coalition has dropped.
Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai said Friday that he'd welcome a Taliban office opening in Turkey, that country's state-run news agency reported, adding that such a development could help peace talks in his war-torn nation.
New video from a production house associated with the Taliban includes scenes of a U.S. soldier captured in Afghanistan nearly 18 months ago, a family spokesman confirmed Tuesday night.
The Taliban claimed responsibility Monday for two explosions targeting a government building in Pakistan's tribal region, a Taliban leader said.
A gunman in an Afghan Border Police uniform who killed six U.S. troops was a reliable officer who had been with the force for three years, a senior official said Wednesday.
Taliban militants killed five Afghan village elders and wounded four others after firing a rocket-propelled grenade at the group's vehicle Wednesday, according to a statement from NATO's International Security Assistance Force.
A new Defense Department report on Afghanistan says dramatic increases in fighting against the Taliban have failed to convince the local population that the Afghan government and coalition forces will succeed.
Eight officers were killed in Afghanistan's Kunduz province when Taliban forces attacked a police post Sunday evening, a local official told CNN on Monday.
A suicide bomber set off a deadly explosion at a mosque in Pakistan. CNN's Reza Sayah reports.
Some policemen in a volatile Afghan province might have defected to the Taliban, the provincial governor told CNN on Tuesday.
Pakistani militants beheaded three men they accused of committing crimes while posing as the Taliban, a Taliban representative told CNN by phone.
Afghan and coalition forces killed 15 insurgents in a raid targeting a senior Taliban leader, the NATO-led force in Afghanistan said.
Even as NATO military officials try to minimize public attention on their role in assisting the Afghan government's meetings with Taliban and insurgent leaders, there are growing indications the program is now part of official NATO and U.S. policy.
A former Afghan president who heads a panel seeking peace discussions with the Taliban says he's optimistic that serious talks can be forged one day but cautioned that it will take time.
Afghan Pres. Hamid Karzai addresses reports of secret talks with the Taliban and claims that he is a manic depressive.
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