The Afghan government declared Wasil Ahmad a hero for leading a militia’s defense against a Taliban siege last year, parading him in front of cameras in a borrowed police uniform too big for him. On Monday, the Taliban triumphantly announced that they had assassinated him with two bullets to the head. Wasil Ahmad was 10 years old. He was gunned down in Tirin Kot city, the capital of southern Oruzgan Province, just a few months after leaving militia life and...

The border between Afghanistan and Pakistan is a lawless no-man's-land where violence and suffering rage, and no one has it harder than the region's 21 million Pashtun women. Their mode of rebellion? Short-verse poems called landays. By Eliza Griswold. (Apr. ’14)

U.S. soldiers accused Afghan police and Navy SEALs of abusing detainees. But the SEAL command opted against a court-martial and cleared its men of wrongdoing. By Nicholas Kulish, Christopher Drew and Matthew Rosenberg. (Dec. 17)

Traveling to Logar Province reveals unmanageable violence and co-optation by foreign companies. By Antony Loewenstein. (Dec. 14)

As midnight approached, the Soviets organized a massive military airlift into Kabul, involving an estimated 280 transport aircraft and three divisions of almost 8,500 men each. Within a few days, the Soviets had secured Kabul, deploying a special assault unit against Tajberg Palace. Elements of the Afghan army loyal to Hafizullah Amin put up a fierce, but brief resistance.

John L. Beck is a Maryland-based photographer who took these amazing pictures of daily life in Afghanistan in October, 1971.

Two servicemen have told Congress that American special forces called in an air strike on a hospital in Afghanistan because they believed the Taliban were using it as a command center, contradicting... By Ken Dilanian.

Baynazar Mohammad Nazar was a husband and a father of four — and a patient killed during the attack on the MSF hospital in Kunduz. This is his story. By Andrew Quilty.

Forget barracks or foxholes. The members of this Defense Department task force slept in queen-size beds and ate three-star meals. A Pentagon task force established in 2006 to help lure private businesses first to Iraq and then Afghanistan allegedly blew as much as $150 million on lavish villas in Afghanistan for a few lucky members of its staff—instead of lodging them cheaply, or for free, at the U.S. embassy or any one of numerous large...

Anyone who has spent any significant amount of time in a Muslim culture can tell you how incredibly different reality is from the general public’s preconceived notions in the West. All Afghans we met today were so very gentle, kind, and with an easy smile once you broke through the shyness.

How does the Islamic State convert children to their cause? Journalist Najibullah Quraishi visited IS militants in their Afghan stronghold to find out. He speaks with William Brangham about the experience.

Facing death, former military translators are walking to Europe with other refugees. By Kevin Knodell.

The attacks raise questions about the quality and reliability of Afghan intelligence gathering. By Sudarsan Raghavan.

American special operations analysts were gathering intelligence on an Afghan hospital days before it was destroyed by a U.S. military attack because they believed it was being used by a Pakistani operative to coordinate Taliban activity, The Associated Press has learned. It's unclear whether commanders who unleashed the AC-130 gunship on the hospital — killing at least 22 patients and hospital staff — were aware that the site was a hospital or knew...

They're defying the rules that girls shouldn't get a higher education. But there are obstacles ahead, from pressure to marry young to the lack of slots in the country's universities.

The U.S. airstrike on a medical compound in Kunduz killed 22 people and has led to calls for an independent investigation.

Asadullah was only 10-years-old when he was arrested and imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay. While working as a tea-boy for an Afghan commander, he, along with 30 other Afghans were rounded up by US soldiers and sent to the notorious military site in Cuba.Branded a 'terrorist' he was held for 17 months before finally being released. Al Jazeera's Sonia Verma was the first journalist to find Asadullah after he was freed, travelling to his remote mountain village to interview him.

Fourteen years ago, on November 25th, 2001, I watched the Taliban surrender Kunduz to Northern Alliance forces. It was a tense and dramatic day. I entered the city, on foot, before dawn, with a column of mujahideen fighters, and, like them, was confused by the noise of aircraft taking off from the city’s airport. After daybreak, at a mustering point in the city, enraged mujahideen commanders told me that what we had heard was an exodus...

Kabul/Brussels. 3 October 2015: The international medical organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) condemns in the strongest possible terms the horrific aerial bombing of its hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan. Twelve staff members and at least 10 patients, including three children, were killed; 37 people were injured including 19 staff members. This attack constitutes a grave violation of International Humanitarian Law.

Much of the world spent the last 48 hours expressing revulsion at the U.S. airstrike on a hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan. It was quite clear early on that the perpetrator of the attack was the U.S., and many media outlets and other organizations around the world have been stating this without any difficulties.