Taliban

The last of 11 Taliban insurgents who infiltrated Kandahar airport was killed late on Dec. 9, more than 24 hours after the attack was launched, the country's Defense Ministry said, with the death toll among civilians and security forces rising to 50. 

Pakistan on Dec. 2 hanged four militants linked to a Taliban massacre at a school in the city of Peshawar, the first time it has executed anyone convicted in the attack, in which more than 150 people were killed.

Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants kidnapped and killed seven people, including three women, in the southern province of Zabul, a police official said on Nov. 8, amid heavy fighting in the region between the group and Taliban insurgents.

Since Rokhsar Azamee began driving the streets of Kabul last year, she has endured condescension, ridicule, and even threats to her life with some men deliberately causing "accidents" to harass her. But she will not be deterred.

A young Afghan woman was stoned to death after being accused of adultery, officials said Nov. 3 , a medieval punishment apparently recorded in a video that harks back to the dark days of Taliban rule.

Afghan authorities rushed 150 "dangerous" inmates from a prison in the insurgency-racked southern province of Helmand to the capital Kabul at the weekend, officials said, after Taliban militants orchestrated two major jailbreaks in recent weeks. 

U.S. military personnel rammed into the gate of a medical aid group's hospital in Afghanistan last week to enter the grounds of the building hit in a U.S. air strike earlier this month, a Pentagon spokesman said on Oct. 19.

US President Barack Obama will announce on Oct. 15 that thousands of US troops will remain in Afghanistan through 2017, the tough reality of that war-wracked nation scuppering a defining election campaign promise.

A suicide bomber attacked a convoy of foreign troops during the morning rush hour on Oct. 11 in the Afghan capital, flipping an armored vehicle on its side and wounding at least three civilians. 

Taliban insurgents fighting to topple the foreign-backed Kabul government claimed responsibility for the attack, which followed a series of bombings in the city in August. 

NATO troops may need to stay in Afghanistan for a longer period and any decision should be based on the situation on the ground, Germany?s defence minister said on Oct. 8 in an implicit criticism of U.S. withdrawal plans.