Taliban

There is news we want to hear, and news we try to ignore. These days, Europeans are packing for their summer vacations. The news we don't want to hear is that by the time we return from well-deserved holidays, the next wave of COVID-19 will have gathered force.

Afghan government forces struggled against Taliban assaults on several major cities on Aug. 1 as the insurgents stepped up a nationwide offensive that saw a key airport in the south come under rocket fire overnight.

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Turkey on July 30 condemned an attack that targeted the U.N. compound in Afghanistan.

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"We are saddened to receive the news that a police officer lost his life and many injured in an attack against the main compound of the United Nations in the city of Herat in Afghanistan today," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Turkish troops will not engage in any combat operation duty other than self-defense if Turkey decides to run the Kabul Airport in Afghanistan, Defense Ministry spokeswoman Maj. Pınar Kara said on July 29.

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With the Taliban gaining their power back in Afghanistan, the number of Afghans stressing that they are fleeing to Turkey for survival is increasing day by day.

"We do not want to be Taliban soldiers. We ran away for our lives," an Afghan entering Turkey's east from the Iranian border told daily Milliyet on July 26.

More women and children were killed and wounded in Afghanistan in the first half of 2021 than in the first six months of any year since the United Nations began systematically keeping count in 2009, a U.N. report said on July 26.

Afghan authorities on July 23 imposed a night-time curfew across 31 of the country's 34 provinces to curb surging violence unleashed by a sweeping Taliban offensive in recent months, the interior ministry said.

With the last U.S. forces on the way out of Afghanistan, U.S. President Joe Biden assured President Ashraf Ghani of U.S. diplomatic and humanitarian support on July 23 as Taliban advances piled pressure on the U.S.-backed government in Kabul.

Turkey aims to establish and maintain peace in Afghanistan through its recent efforts and initiatives, said Turkey's parliament speaker on July 22. 

Mustafa Şentop and Mir Rahman Rahmani, the speaker of Afghanistan's House of the People, had a phone conversation on the occasion of the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha, according to a statement by Turkey's Parliament Speaker's Office.

The Taliban is seeking support from Muslim countries to find a political solution to the conflict in Afghanistan and wants to develop good ties with Turkey, the group's spokesman Zabinullah Muhajid has said.

"Turkey is our brother, and we have so much in common based on faith," Mujahid said in an interview with TRT Arabi.