Government of Afghanistan

The real life of a soldier in war theatres is far from the glorified image often portrayed in a Hollywood film. It is a constant battle for his/her life survival at every turn. A video shows a US soldier taking on Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan. The footage shows him pinned behind the tree-line, while under heavy fire. He manages to survive.

The Afghan Taliban claim they shot down a US helicopter in south Afghanistan, according to local news reports relayed on Friday. The Taliban terrorist claim all American soldiers on board were killed. Newspaper ‘Watan Press’, based in the country’s capital city of Kabul, has posted a photo on its facebook profile purportedly showing the helicopter in flames.

A rogue Afghan policeman drugged and then shot dead 10 of his colleagues in the country's volatile south early on Jan. 26, officials said, the second insider attack on police in just over a week.

The Taliban infiltrator then stole their weapons and fled the police outpost in the Chinarto district of Uruzgan province, authorities said, triggering a manhunt.

A powerful suicide car bomb struck near the Russian embassy in downtown Kabul Jan. 20, with casualties feared from the latest attack in the Afghan capital, the interior ministry said.

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced on Jan. 18 a small increase in the Australian troop commitment to the NATO-led force supporting the Afghan central government during a surprise visit to Kabul.

Pakistan on Jan. 11 opened four-country talks aimed at luring the Afghan Taliban back to the negotiating table with the Kabul government, even as the insurgents wage an unprecedented winter campaign of violence.

If the Taliban were not so busy fighting the rival Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) jihadis who began operating in Afghanistan early this year, they might now be within reach of overthrowing the Afghan government that the Western powers left behind when they pulled out most of their troops last year. Even with that distraction, the Taliban are doing pretty well.

The Taliban have condemned the killing of 13 minority Hazaras as a plot to "breed fault lines", in an apparent dig at the rival Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) making gradual inroads into Afghanistan.

Fifteen more fatalities were confirmed Saturday from a barrage of bombings in Kabul, taking the toll to 51 in the deadliest day in the Afghan capital since the NATO combat mission ended in December.
  

The Taliban on July 30 confirmed the death of their leader Mullah Omar but gave no word about who would take charge of the movement still waging a bloody insurgency in Afghanistan.