Iranian Agriculture Minister Gholamreza Nouri Ghezeljeh arrived in Kabul on Wednesday, 12 August, leading a delegation for talks with Taliban officials and a visit to an agriculture and livestock exhibition.
The United Nations office in Kabul confirmed to Afghanistan International on Tuesday that two Afghan male UN employees were detained in Herat by Taliban intelligence on Sunday, 9 August.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid has denied that the group is holding Afghan-American Mahmood Shah Habibi, a former head of Afghanistan’s civil aviation authority, saying it has no information about his fate.
Sources told Afghanistan International that Taliban intelligence has detained two UNAMA human rights staff members in Herat after they recently reported on the detention of women in the province.
Richard Bennett, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Afghanistan, has called for an independent investigation into the killing of 11 people by Taliban security forces in Kabul.
Taliban Justice Minister Abdul Hakim Sharaei has rejected allegations of “systematic discrimination” and attempts to forcibly displace Hazaras, saying land recovery is a legal matter unrelated to ethnicity or religion.
Taliban Borders & Tribal Affairs Minister Noorullah Noori has travelled to Yaftal district of Badakhshan at the order of Prime Minister Hassan Akhund to investigate a deadly clash between Taliban forces and local residents.
The Taliban police command in Kabul said on Monday that four people were killed in a clash with its forces in the city’s 18th police district.
Five years after the Taliban’s return to power, armed opposition groups have yet to shift the balance. The Taliban still controls Afghanistan’s territory, state institutions and main economic resources.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei says Tehran’s water rights remain a top priority and a constant, vital and strategic issue in relations with the Taliban.
Darul Ifta at Darul Uloom Karachi has said women may pursue education, including medicine, under Islamic conditions, in response to a request from an Afghan refugee woman about female education in Afghanistan.
The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) has issued a new report on accountability for Taliban security forces and officials accused of misconduct and ill-treatment.
Reporters Without Borders says the Taliban has turned Afghanistan into a prison for information over the past five years, with each new directive further restricting journalists and independent media.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian says the Taliban and Pakistan have cooperated well with Tehran under wartime conditions and prevented foreign elements from entering Iran.
The Taliban’s Information and Culture Department in Badakhshan said Abdul Wakil Munib, commander of the 219 Omar-e-Salis Division, inspected security conditions along the borders with Tajikistan and China.
Anti-Taliban fronts say they carried out at least 15 attacks on Taliban positions across nine Afghan provinces over the past week, claiming that around 30 Taliban members were killed.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry has again called for those behind the 1998 attack on its consulate in Mazar-e-Sharif to be identified and brought to justice, marking the 28th anniversary of the killings.
The Guardian and Zan Times have documented 231 cases of alleged femicide across 10 Afghan provinces since August 2021, reporting a rise in killings of women and fatal violence under Taliban rule.
The United Front of Afghanistan said on Saturday that its forces killed a Taliban morality police officer in a park in Kandahar’s Aino Mina township.
The Afghanistan Freedom Front said on Friday that two Taliban members were killed and another wounded in an attack on a Taliban intelligence office in Jalalabad’s sixth district on Thursday evening.
Judges at the International Criminal Court have asked prosecutors to consider allegations of the Taliban’s gender-based persecution in a separate investigation, according to a decision issued in mid-July 2026.