Taliban | featured news

The Taliban is stronger now than before President Barack Obama ordered a surge of troops to Afghanistan, two senior U.S. lawmakers said on Sunday, contradicting the administration's assessment of the insurgency.

Authorities in northern Pakistan were looking for 384 inmates who escaped from a prison early Sunday morning after 300 Taliban militants raided it.

Prospects for an orderly withdrawal of NATO forces from Afghanistan suffered two blows on Thursday, as President Hamid Karzai demanded that American troops be confined to major bases by next year.

The Taliban vowed revenge Monday for an "inhumane attack" in which an American soldier allegedly shot to death 16 civilians in southern Afghanistan and torched their bodies - an assault that has fueled anger still simmering after U.S. troops burned Qurans last month.

The Afghan government has joined the United States in talks with the Taliban, Afghan President Hamid Karzai says in a new report.

The Taliban have met with U.S. officials to discuss possible peace talks, but do not want to negotiate with Afghan President Hamid Karzai's government, a Taliban spokesman said Tuesday.

A secret U.S. military report says that the Taliban, backed by Pakistan, are set to retake control over Afghanistan after NATO-led forces withdraw from the country, The Times newspaper reported on Wednesday.

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has condemned a video that apparently shows U.S. Marines urinating on the corpses of Afghan men, promising to punish those involved. Earlier, an Afghan Taliban spokesman said the video will not affect efforts to broker peace talks.

The Taliban’s willingness to open a political office in Qatar represents a critical point in the United States’s attempt to negotiate an end to the Afghanistan war.

The Afghan Taliban are prepared to open an "office outside the country for talks with foreigners," according to a statement released today. The move may signal the Taliban's willingness to talk to the U.S. for the first time.