WORLD

UK ends civilian evacuation mission in Afghanistan: Ministry of Defense
IANS -
Any further flights leaving Kabul under Britain's evacuation operation "will have UK diplomatic and military personnel on board," the ministry added. General Nick Carter, Britain's chief of defence staff, said: "(The withdrawal) is not how we hoped it would end", the Xinhua news agency reported.
Pentagon says US drone strike kills 2 ISIS-K targets
IANS -
"Two high-profile ISIS targets were killed, one was wounded, and we know of zero civilian casualties," US Army Major General Hank Taylor told reporters in a Pentagon briefing, the Xinhua news agency reported. US Central Command initially assessed on Friday that the drone strike, which occurred in Nangarhar province of eastern Afghanistan, killed one ISIS-K planner.
Pakistan intends to run Taliban govt in Afghanistan through Haqqani network: Experts
IANS -
Leaders such as Khalil-ul-Rehman Haqqani has been appointed as the new security chief of Kabul, while the son of Haqqani network founder Jalaluddin Haqqani, Abdul Aziz Abbasin, has been given the charge of managing the supplies of arms and ammunition to Taliban troopers who have been trying to get control of the Panjshir valley.
Tajikistan in global limelight as Afghanistan explodes
IANS -
As events unfolded, his words have been prescient. While former president Ashraf Ghani fled - there are rumours that he did so with a helicopter full of money - his vice president Amrullah Saleh, it was rumoured, had also fled. Some accounts said he was in neighbouring Tajikistan.
After Taliban takeover, Qureshi visits Turkmenistan, tries to revive TAPI gas pipeline project
IANS -
During his visit to Ashgabat, Turkmenistan's capital, on Thursday, Pakistan's foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi sought revival of the dormant project. Qureshi said that TAPI was beneficial for the entire region and Afghanistan alone would get $1 billion in transit fee and royalty after completion of the project, Paksitani daily Dawn reported.
ISI-linked Pakistani Aslam Farooqui is the mastermind behind Kabul airport attack
IANS -
Aslam is the mastermind of many attacks in Kabul including the massacres at a Sikh Gurudwara and a hospital last year. The ISKP had cited "revenge" for the Muslims of Kashmir' as their motive while claiming responsibility for the 25 March Kabul Gurdwara attack in which several Afghan Sikhs and one Indian national were killed.
7,000 more residents evacuated in California due to wildfires
IANS -
Over 6,000 of the people evacuated came from Calaveras County, where a wildfire dubbed Airola Fire burned about 700 acres and threatened many communities, Xinhua news agency quoted the CalOES as saying on Friday. As of Friday, most of the evacuation orders triggered by the Airola Fire were downgraded to evacuation warnings, but many parts of Calaveras County and its surrounding area were still inundated with smoky conditions and limited visibility.
Italy pushing for special G20 meeting on Afghanistan
IANS -
Italy's last airlift flight, carried out by a military C-130 plane, is expected to land in Rome on Saturday, bringing back "all the Italians who asked to be repatriated", Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio said on Friday. He confirmed that some 4,900 Afghan nationals who wanted to leave following the Taliban takeover of the war-ton nation have been evacuated by Italian forces during the operation, reports Xinhua news agency.
2 UK nationals among dead in Kabul airport attack: Foreign Secy
IANS -
"I was deeply saddened to learn that two British nationals and the child of another British national were killed by yesterday's terror attack, with two more injured," Raab said in a statement on Friday. Two suicide bomb attacks rocked the Kabul airport in the Afghan capital on Thursday, killing at least 103 people, including 13 US service members, and injuring 158 others. The Islamic State (IS) terror group has claimed responsibility for the deadly attack, saying it was targeting "translators and collaborators with the American army".
US says drone strike kills IS-K planner
IANS -
"The US military forces conducted an over-the-horizon counterterrorism operation today against an IS-K planner," US Central Command spokesman Bill Urban said in a statement on Friday night. "The unmanned airstrike occurred in the Nangahar Province of Afghanistan. Initial indications are that we killed the target. We know of no civilian casualties," the statement added. Urban described the drone attack as an "over-the-horizon counterterrorism operation", the BBC reported.
Advertisement