Middle East, Taliban | featured news

After 10 months of secret dialogue with Afghanistan's Taliban insurgents, senior U.S. officials say the talks have reached a critical juncture and they will soon know whether a breakthrough is possible, leading to peace talks whose ultimate goal is to end the Afghan war.

Taliban members who agree to stop fighting are being paid 100 pounds per month in an attempt to reduce attacks against NATO troops in Afghanistan, a newspaper says.

Pakistan's Taliban movement, a major security threat to the country, is holding exploratory peace talks with the U.S.-backed government, a senior Taliban commander and mediators told Reuters on Monday.

The Taliban vowed to keep fighting until all foreign forces left Afghanistan in a statement on Friday to mark the 10th anniversary of the U.S. military campaign in the country.

The Taliban hit back with a vengeance following the US-led invasion of 2001.

Pakistan has denied the Afghan government's claim its spy agency was involved in the killing of Afghanistan's envoy for Taliban peace talks.

An unidentified attacker on Tuesday killed former President Burhanuddin Rabbani, the leader of Afghanistan’s High Peace Council, whose main responsibility was negotiating a political end to the war with the Taliban.

American officials have blamed the bold attack on the U.S. Embassy on a Pakistan-based group allied with the Taliban.

The United States must keep fighting the Taliban or risk more attacks like those of September 11, 2001, because the insurgent group is a ruthless enemy that has not cut ties to al Qaeda, the U.S. ambassador to Kabul said.

Direct U.S. talks with the Taliban had evolved to a substantive negotiation before Afghan officials, nervous that the secret and independent talks would undercut President Hamid Karzai, scuttled them, Afghan and U.S. officials told The Associated Press....