Afghanistan

KABUL, July 9, (Reuters) - Afghan Air Force Major Dastagir Zamaray had grown so fearful of Taliban assassinations of off-duty forces in Kabul that he decided to sell his home to move to a safer pocket of Afghanistan's sprawling capital.

Instead of being greeted by a prospective buyer at his realtor's office earlier this year, the 41-year-old pilot was confronted by a gunman who walked inside and, without a word, fatally shot the real estate agent in the mouth.

HERAT/KABUL, July 7 (Reuters) - Taliban insurgents on Wednesday reached the entry points to the capital of Afghanistan's northwestern Badghis province, officials said, causing panic among local people and prompting prisoners to break out of the city's prison.

Provincial governor Husamuddin Shams told Reuters the Taliban had attacked the city of Qala-e-Naw from three directions in the morning and Afghan security forces were fighting them back.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — As the end to America’s “forever war” rapidly approaches, the U.S. Embassy and other diplomatic missions in Kabul are watching a worsening security situation and looking at how to respond.

In the countryside, districts are falling to the Taliban in rapid succession. America’s warlord allies are re-arming their militias, which have a violent history, raising the specter of another civil war once the U.S. withdrawal is finished, expected in August.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A surge of Taliban wins in northern Afghanistan has caused some countries to close their north Afghan consulates, while across the border in Tajikistan reservists are being called up to reinforce its southern border, according to officials and reports on Tuesday.

Nearly 1,000 Afghan soldiers have fled the Taliban advances by crossing the border into Tajikistan, according to reports from Tajikistan.

BAGRAM, Afghanistan (AP) — The U.S. left Afghanistan’s Bagram Airfield after nearly 20 years by shutting off the electricity and slipping away in the night without notifying the base’s new Afghan commander, who discovered the Americans’ departure more than two hours after they left, Afghan military officials said.

Afghanistan’s army showed off the sprawling air base Monday, providing a rare first glimpse of what had been the epicenter of America’s war to unseat the Taliban and hunt down the al-Qaida perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks on America.

KUNDUZ, Afghanistan, July 5 (Xinhua) -- A total of 15 Taliban militants have been killed in airstrikes as the fighters have been mobilized to overrun Kunduz city, capital of Afghanistan's northern Kunduz province, an army spokesman in the province said on Monday.

Acting on tip-off, warplanes from the Afghan government forces targeted Taliban militants gathering outside Kunduz city early Monday, killing 15 insurgents on the spot, spokesman Abdul Hadi Nazari said.

A number of arms and ammunitions of the militants were also destroyed during the raids, he added.

KABUL, July 4 (Xinhua) -- The Afghan Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock (MAIL) has constructed 45 dense gardens in eastern Nangarhar province in the latest efforts to revive horticulture in the land-locked country, the ministry said on Sunday.

"The MAIL has built 45 dense-orchards, including lemon and clementine, on more than 100 acres of land in Behsood, Bati Kot, Kuzkunar and Kama districts of Nangarhar over the past two years," the ministry said in a statement.

Washington, Jul 2 (AP-PTI) The U.S. military will remain involved in the Afghanistan war into September, keeping the option of launching airstrikes against the Taliban to defend Afghan forces, U.S. officials said Thursday, even as the final combat troops prepare to leave the country in coming days.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — After nearly 20 years, the U.S. military left Bagram Airfield, the epicenter of its war to oust the Taliban and hunt down the al-Qaida perpetrators of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on America, two U.S. officials said Friday.

The airfield was handed over to the Afghan National Security and Defense Force in its entirety, they said on condition they not be identified because they were not authorized to release the information to the media.

KABUL, July 1 (Reuters) - Afghan scrap dealers are picking over the detritus of the two-decade U.S. military intervention in Afghanistan, collecting whatever they can of value from heaps of broken military hardware, scrapped machines and old furniture.

While the scrap men search through junk outside the main U.S. base in Afghanistan, the Afghan government, and the country as a whole, are having to face up to the end of an international mission that promised so much but failed to bring peace.