Afghanistan

Osama bin Laden (left) sits with his No. 2, Ayman al-Zawahiri, for an interview that was published in November 2001, shortly after the 9/11 attacks. The U.S. says it killed al-Zawahiri in a drone strike in Kabul on Sunday.

3 things the strike on al-Zawahiri tell us about the U.S. counterterrorism strategy

3:03pm August 02, 2022

The U.S. targeted the top al-Qaida leader, showing it could track down and strike against a hard-to-find extremist figure even in a country where the U.S. has no military or diplomatic presence.

In this 1998 file photo, Ayman al-Zawahiri (left) holds a press conference with Osama bin Laden in Khost, Afghanistan. Zawahiri succeeded bin Laden as al-Qaida's leader following the 2011 U.S. raid that killed bin Laden in Pakistan.

Opinion: What Ayman al-Zawahiri's death means for al-Qaida's future

2:54pm August 02, 2022

by Colin P. Clarke

Zawahiri's death places al-Qaida in a precarious position, argues Colin P. Clarke of the Soufan Center. The question of succession will help shape al-Qaida now — and it may prove divisive.

Amir Arison (left) and Eris Sirakian in The Kite Runner.

Arts

'The Kite Runner' brings life in Afghanistan to Broadway

5:10pm July 20, 2022

by Jeff Lunden

The play is based on Khaled Hosseini's 2003 best-selling novel, set in Afghanistan and among Afghan migrants in the United States.

Women in burkas sit outside a bakery in Kabul. Impoverished women from hilltop slums around Kabul have been flocking to bakeries in the city, silently waiting to see if someone will purchase bread for them.

Health & Safety

In Kabul, a new ritual: Hungry women wait for bread outside bakeries

7:26am July 17, 2022

Since the Taliban came to power, food insecurity has risen. Women in blue burqas sit in front of the city's upscale bakeries, silently waiting for charitable passersby to purchase bread for them.

A teenage girl wearing a face mask, head scarf and long black robe listens to a math teacher at a tutoring center in Kabul. The center was established by a women's rights activist to circumvent a Taliban ban on girls attending secondary school. The activi

Secret schools enable Afghanistan's teen girls to skirt Taliban's education ban

4:29pm July 12, 2022

The official rule: no secondary school for girls. But behind a veil of secrecy, women are opening small schools so that at least some of these teenagers are able to continue learning

Health & Safety

Afghanistan's depleted dining rugs are a reminder of hunger and loss

2:51pm July 08, 2022

As members of the middle class have fallen into poverty in the wake of the Taliban takeover, families are no longer able to serve sumptuous repasts on their traditional dining rugs.

In this photo released by Pakistan's National Disaster Management Authority, a convoy of trucks carrying relief goods prepare to leave for Afghanistan at a warehouse in Islamabad, Pakistan, Thursday, June 23, 2022.

World News

Survivors dig by hand after Afghanistan quake killing 1,000

2:31am June 23, 2022

by The Associated Press

The disaster inflicted by the quake heaps more misery on a country where millions face increasing hunger and poverty and the health system has been crumbling since the Taliban retook power last year.

In this image taken from video from Bakhtar State News Agency, Taliban fighters secure a government helicopter to evacuate injured people in Gayan district, Paktika province, Afghanistan, Wednesday, June 22, 2022.

More than 900 people have reportedly been killed in an earthquake in Afghanistan

8:55am June 22, 2022

by Diaa Hadid

The hardest hit areas were remote farming villages in the eastern Afghan province of Paktika. "All the village completely is destroyed," said one man, showing collapsed homes on a cell phone video.

Queue Listen Now

A view of a sprawling cemetery in Kabul, Afghanistan, Monday, May 9, 2022.

World News

At least 1 killed in attack on Sikh temple in Afghan capital

7:22am June 18, 2022

by The Associated Press

Several explosions and gunfire ripped through a Sikh temple in Afghanistan's capital on Saturday morning.

Taliban officials eradicate a poppy field on Sunday in Washir, a district of Helmand province in Afghanistan. The country's Taliban rulers have begun a campaign to eradicate poppy cultivation, aiming to wipe out the country's massive production of opium a

World News

Afghanistan dominates global opium production. The Taliban is shutting that down

9:10am June 02, 2022

by The Associated Press

After the group retook power in the country in 2021, it banned poppy cultivation. Now it's tearing the plants out, field by field. But farmers and workers worry there's no money in other crops.