Taliban

Afghan women and children sit in front of a bakery waiting for bread donations in Kabul's Old City, Afghanistan, on Sept. 16, 2021.

‘It is a catastrophe’: Afghans are in desperate need of food, humanitarian aid, refugee worker says

Afghanistan

Astrid Sletten, head of the Norwegian Refugee Council’s office in Kabul, spoke to The World’s Carol Hills about the level of need in Afghanistan and what aid organizations are able to deliver in the current environment.

Newly trained female officers from the Afghan National Army sit in front seats as a new batch of officers attend their graduation ceremony at National Army's training center in Kabul on Sept. 23, 2010. 

Two decades of war and daily life in Afghanistan

Afghanistan
US Black Hawk military helicopters fly over the city of Kabul, Afghanistan, April 19, 2021.

Afghans who fled to Turkey are worried — and hopeful — about the prospect of peace at home

Refugees

Afghanistan’s Antiquities in Peril

Arts, Culture & Media
A still image from a video posted by the Taliban on social media on Dec. 19, 2016, shows American Caitlan Coleman, left, speaking next to her Canadian husband Joshua Boyle and their sons.

Pakistan describes freeing US Canadian family from the Taliban, but officials doubt the story

Conflict
Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar speaks during a welcoming ceremony at the presidential palace in Kabul, Afghanistan May 4th, 2017

Notorious Afghan warlord returns to Kabul on May the Fourth

Conflict

Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar returned to Kabul Thursday after ending 15 years of rebellion against the Afghan government. He happens to bear an uncanny resemblance to Star Wars character Count Dooku, the Sith Lord.

A police cadet injured during the attack on the Police Training Center lies in bed in a hospital in Quetta, Pakistan.

Attackers kill dozens of sleeping cadets at Pakistani police academy in Quetta

Conflict

Who’s to blame? Two militant groups have taken credit. Pakistan’s army blames a third group. And some point fingers at the army itself, accusing security forces of fostering the very extremist groups now attacking the country.

An Afghan National Army (ANA) soldier speaks on a radio at an outpost in Helmand province, December 20, 2015.

Afghanistan can’t control the Taliban since the Taliban controls the drug trade

Conflict

The war against the Taliban continues. And some rural residents hope the group wins as they allow them to produce opium.

'Solar mamas' bring light to Zanzibar

Saving Christians, fighting a scourge, bringing light: The year in hope

Conflict

They wouldn’t yield to terrorists, dictators or diseases. They brought light to the world. A look at seven stories in 2015 that inspired us.

Women turned out for an election campaign event in Kunduz province, northern Afghanistan last year.

The Taliban had a hit list of working women when they took over Kunduz

Conflict

When Taliban insurgents seized control of Kunduz last month, they went door-to-door targeting women who work outside the home. Female workers of one aid group knew the risk and escaped — and now plan to return to continue supporting other survivors.