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US forces in helicopters recovered the remains Tuesday of the crew killed when one of its military jets went down in a Taliban-controlled area, hours after Afghan forces trying to reach the wreckage clashed with insurgents. The Bombardier E-11A -- used for military communications -- went down in a snowy part of eastern Afghanistan on Monday afternoon. Ghazni police chief Khaled Wardak said US choppers landed at the site in the late afternoon and were reinforced by Afghan security forces on the ground during the operation. "Following the removal of the bodies, our forces have moved back to their bases. We don't know where the foreigners have taken the bodies," added Wardak. Nasir Ahmad Faqiri, the head of the provincial council in Ghazni, confirmed the operation, saying the Americans took at least two bodies from the scene. Earlier in the day, coalition forces flew sorties over the site of the crashed jet with one aircraft firing flares as a crowd gathered nearby, according to a local reporter at the scene. The Pentagon has confirmed the aircraft belonged to US forces, but dismissed Taliban claims it had been shot down. US officials have not confirmed or commented on Tuesday's operation or said how many people were onboard the flight when it crashed. Police chief Wardak said after the plane went down Afghan security forces tried to reach the wreckage late Monday when they were ambushed by the Taliban and pushed back. Ghazni police spokesman Ahmad Khan Sirat confirmed the ambush, adding that at least one person was killed in the fighting between the Taliban and Afghan forces. Footage from the crash site showed people speaking Pashto walking around the crashed plane, with flames and smoke emanating from the charred fuselage. What appeared to be at least two bodies could be seen. Crashes involving military flights, particularly helicopters, are common in Afghanistan where inclement weather and creaky aircraft are often pressed to their limits in the war-torn country. The crash comes as Washington and the Taliban continue to wrangle over a possible agreement that would see US troops begin to leave Afghanistan in return for security guarantees. The two sides had been negotiating the deal for a year and were on the brink of an announcement in September 2019 when US President Donald Trump abruptly declared the process "dead", citing Taliban violence. Taliban sources told AFP earlier this month they had offered to initiate a brief ceasefire of seven to 10 days in a bid to restart the formal negotiations, but there was no announcement of the proposal by either party.

Afghan forces and Taliban fighters clashed in a central region where a US military aircraft crashed, officials said on Tuesday, as the government tried to reach the wreckage site in a Taliban stronghold. On Monday, the US military said an E-11A aircraft crashed in the province of Ghazni, but disputed Taliban claims to have brought it down, without saying how many were aboard or if any had been killed. Security forces were sent to the site immediately after receiving a report of the crash in the Deh Yak district, but were ambushed by Taliban fighters, Ghazni provincial police chief Khalid Wardak told Reuters. ‘As per our information, there are four bodies and two onboard were alive and they are missing,’ Wardak said, adding that the forces subsequently received an order to retreat and airborne action is to be taken instead. Zabiullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, said Afghan forces backed by US military support had tried to capture the area around the crashed aircraft and clashed with fighters of the militant group. The attempt was repelled, however, he told Reuters, but added that the Taliban would allow a rescue team access to recover bodies from the crash site. ‘Taliban fighters on the ground counted six bodies at the site of the US airplane crash,’ he said, adding that while there could have been more, the militant group could not be certain, as fire had reduced everything to ashes. Speaking on condition of anonymity, US officials said the plane was carrying fewer than five when it crashed, with one official saying initial information showed there were at least two. The site has not been visited by US officials or any other members of the international force in Afghanistan, but the Taliban claim to have brought down the plane is misleading, a US defence official told Reuters on Tuesday, adding that a preliminary probe showed there was a mechanical error. The crashed aircraft, built by Bombardier Inc, is used to provide communication capabilities in remote locations.

The US military has confirmed that one of its aircraft crashed in eastern Afghanistan but said there was "no indication the crash was caused by enemy fire". A Taliban spokesman had claimed that the group shot the plane down over territory they control near Ghazni city. The US Bombardier E-11A went down early Monday afternoon and was initially mistaken by Afghan authorities for a passenger jet. But footage, purportedly from the wreckage site, soon emerged, showing the US air force insignia on a charred fuselage. "While the cause of crash is under investigation, there are no indications the crash was caused by enemy fire," a spokesman for the US military in Afghanistan tweeted."Taliban claims that additional aircraft have crashed are false." A spokesman for the Taliban, Zabihullah Mujahid, said in a statement posted online: "An American invader aircraft has been shot down. Lots of officers have been killed." He said high-ranking CIA officers had been onboard the plane, but the claim could not be independently verified.

The Taliban claimed a US forces aircraft crashed in eastern Afghanistan Monday hours after a plane went down into an area controlled largely by the insurgents. The militants claim comes as confusion continued to surround the incident, with Afghan officials and airliners denying that any of their aircraft are missing while NATO have yet to officially comment on the crash. "An aircraft of American occupiers has crashed in Ghazni province," Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a Pashto-language statement, adding that all the crew members onboard had been killed. Confusion also clouded the Taliban statement, however, with one version saying the plane crashed while another version said the insurgents brought down the craft. Large swathes of rural areas in Ghazni province are controlled or under the influence of Taliban militants, making access difficult for officials. But ministry of defense spokesman Rohullah Ahmadzai told AFP that the plane did not belong to Afghan forces or the country's intelligence agency. The ministry's statement comes hours after reports on social media were rife with suggestions that the plane was from state-owned Ariana Afghan Airlines -- however the company said the rumours were "not true". "All the flights of Ariana Afghan Airlines have been completed normally," a statement on the carrier's verified Facebook page read. The Civil Aviation Authority of Afghanistan also denied reports that the plane was a commercial flight. "According to our information from the Control Tower and Traffic Regulatory Authority, no commercial airline crash has been recorded. And Ariana Afghan Airlines have reassured us that all their planes are accounted for," said the organisation. Footage published by a Taliban-affiliated account showed a people speaking Pashto walking around a crashed plane that looked similar to a craft used by US forces in Afghanistan for communications purposes. Crashes involving military flights, particularly helicopters, are common in Afghanistan where inclement weather and creaky aircraft are often pressed to their limits in the war-torn country -- and where insurgents have been known to target helicopters. The last civilian flight to crash was in May 2010, when an ageing Pamir Airways plane went down in bad weather during a scheduled flight to Kabul from the northern province of Kunduz. It was carrying six crew and 38 passengers when it crashed into a mountainside 20 kilometres from Kabul. The incident comes as Washington and the Taliban continue to wrangle over a possible agreement that would see US troops begin to leave Afghanistan in return for security guarantees. The Taliban are aiming to reach a withdrawal agreement with the US by the end of January and are prepared to "scale down" military operations ahead of signing a deal, their chief spokesman said earlier this month. The two sides had been negotiating the deal for a year and were on the brink of an announcement in September 2019 when Trump abruptly declared the process "dead", citing Taliban violence. Talks were later restarted in December, but paused again following an attack near the US-run Bagram military base in Afghanistan. Taliban sources told AFP earlier this month they had offered to initiate a brief ceasefire of seven to 10 days, but there was no announcement of the proposal by either party.

Afghan forces used ground attacks and air strikes in multiple operations against the Taliban during the last 24 hours, killing 51 fighters in an escalation that signalled renewed deadlock in peace talks. Afghanistan's Defence Ministry said on Sunday that government forces had conducted 13 ground offensives and 12 air strikes in nine provinces, adding that 51 ‘terrorists’ had been killed, 13 wounded and six arrested. Local officials in the northern province of Balkh said at least three women and four children were killed in the air strikes, prompting protests in front of the provincial governor's office. The government pledged to send a fact-finding mission to investigate the reports of civilian deaths. Meanwhile, the Taliban said it had staged two more attacks targeting security forces over the weekend, following sporadic assaults last week. Afghan security forces' checkpoints in Kunduz were attacked on Saturday night, Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said in a statement, adding that 10 members of the security forces were killed and three wounded. Taliban fighters also captured a large weapons cache, he said. In a separate statement, the Taliban said its fighters had ambushed an Afghan forces patrol in Balkh, killing eight security personnel. The spike in hostilities comes as US and Taliban negotiators in Doha take a two-day break for consultations about how to overcome recent hurdles in the talks, a source close to the process told Reuters. Negotiations between the two sides began last year in Doha but have been interrupted at least twice after Taliban attacks on US military personnel in September and December. Last week, another round of talks kicked off with US Special Representative on Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad meeting repeatedly with the Taliban's chief negotiator Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar. Multiple sources close to the talks said the Taliban had agreed internally to halt attacks against US forces and ‘reduce’ assaults against Afghan government interests. Over the last week, however, reports of attacks by Taliban fighters on government installations, including police stations continued to filter in from different parts of Afghanistan.

The Taliban are aiming to reach a withdrawal agreement with the US by the end of January and are prepared to ‘scale down’ military operations ahead of signing the deal, according to their chief spokesman. The statement by Suhail Shaheen to Pakistani daily Dawn comes as the group and the US held discussions in Doha this week, after insurgent sources told AFP they had offered to initiate a brief ceasefire. ‘We have agreed to scale down military operations in days leading up to the signing of the peace agreement with the United States,’ Shaheen told Dawn in a report published Saturday. He added that the Taliban were ‘optimistic’ a deal with Washington could be signed before the end of the month and that the reduction in fighting across the country would also include the targeting of Afghan forces. ‘It's now a matter of days,’ said the spokesman. Washington has for weeks been calling on the militants to reduce violence, posing it as a condition for resuming formal negotiations on an agreement that would see US troops begin to leave the country in return for security guarantees, after a near two-decade fight. The Taliban and the US had been negotiating the deal for a year and were on the brink of an announcement in September 2019 when President Donald Trump abruptly declared the process ‘dead’, citing Taliban violence. Talks were later restarted between the two sides in December in Qatar, but were paused again following an attack near the Bagram military base in Afghanistan, which is run by the US. Any agreement with the Taliban is expected to have two main pillars -- an American withdrawal from Afghanistan, and a commitment by the insurgents not to offer sanctuary to jihadists -- and would ultimately have to be given final approval by Trump. The Taliban's relationship with Al-Qaeda was the main reason cited for the US invasion more than 18 years ago. A deal would hopefully pave the way for intra-Afghan talks. Many observers agree that the war can no longer be won militarily, and that the only route to a lasting peace in Afghanistan is for an agreement between the Taliban and the US-backed government in Kabul. The Taliban have until now refused to negotiate with the Afghan government, which they consider an illegitimate regime, raising fears that fighting will continue regardless of any deal ironed out with the Americans.

More than 100,000 Afghan civilians have been killed or injured over the past decade, the United Nations reported Thursday, as it renewed calls to end the bloody 18-year conflict. The announcement comes as the Taliban and US continue to hold talks aimed at drawing a close to America's longest war, after the negotiations were called off in September by President Donald Trump due to insurgent attacks. However fighting continues to rage across the country, with ordinary Afghans frequently bearing the brunt of the violence. ‘I recognize with extreme sadness that civilian casualties recently surpassed 100,000 in the past 10 years alone, from the time the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) began systematic documentation of civilian casualties,’ Tadamichi Yamamoto, the UN special representative in Afghanistan, said in a statement. ‘The United Nations urges those participating in all peace efforts to consider the millions of ordinary Afghans, especially the victims of the conflict, who want a chance to live in peace so they can rebuild their lives.’ The grim milestone also comes days after officials announced preliminary results in Afghanistan's latest presidential elections that put President Ashraf Ghani on track to secure a second term. The Taliban have long viewed Ghani as an American stooge and have refused to negotiate with him, leading many to fear that fighting will continue even if the US secures an eventual deal with the militants. Earlier this year, the UN reported that an ‘unprecedented’ number of civilians had been killed or wounded in Afghanistan from July 1 to September 30 this year, saying there had been 1,174 deaths and 3,139 injuries in that period. A UN tally found that last year was the deadliest on record, with at least 3,804 civilian deaths caused by the war -- including 927 children.

Typhoon Phanfone pummelled the central Philippines on Christmas Day, bringing a wet and miserable holiday season to millions in the nation. Thousands were stranded at shuttered ports or evacuation centres at the height of the festive season on Wednesday, and residents cowered in rain-soaked homes as Phanfone leapt from one small island to another for the second day. The typhoon toppled houses and trees and blacked out cities in the Philippines' most storm-prone region, but no deaths were reported. Though weaker, Phanfone was tracking a similar path as Super Typhoon Haiyan -- the country's deadliest cyclone on record which left more than 7,300 people dead or missing in 2013. More than 10,000 people spent the night in schools, gyms and government buildings hastily converted into evacuation centres as the typhoon made landfall Tuesday, civil defence officials said. ‘It was frightening. The glass windows shattered and we took cover by the stairs,’ Ailyn Metran told AFP after she and her four-year-old child spent the night at the local state weather service office where her husband worked. A metal window frame flew off and fell onto a car parked outside the building, she said. With just two hours' sleep, the family returned to their home in the central city of Tacloban early Wednesday to find their two dogs safe, but the floor was covered in mud and a felled tree rested atop a nearby house. The weather office said the typhoon strengthened slightly overnight Tuesday and was gusting at 195 kilometres (121 miles) an hour, velocities that can knock down small trees and destroy houses made of light materials. More islands are along its projected path are expected to be hit with destructive winds and intense rainfall before blowing out into the South China Sea early Thursday, it added. More than 25,000 people trying to get home for the traditional Christmas Eve midnight dinner with their families remained stranded at ports on Christmas Day with ferry services still shut down, the coast guard said. Scores of flights to the region also remained cancelled, though the populous capital Manila, on the northern edge has so far been spared. The Philippines is the first major landmass facing the Pacific cyclone belt. As such, the archipelago gets hit by an average of 20 storms and typhoons each year, killing scores of people and wiping out harvests, homes and other infrastructure and keeping millions perennially poor. A July 2019 study by the Manila-based Asian Development Bank said the most frequent storms lop one percent off the Philippine economic output, with the stronger ones cutting output by nearly three percent.

Taliban militants have abducted 27 members of the People's Peace Movement from Afghanistan's western province of Farah, a leader of the group said on Wednesday. The militants took the activists from Bala Buluk district while they were travelling in a peace march from the neighbouring western Herat, the group's leader Iqbal Khaibar told dpa. The activist group has not been given any update on the marchers' whereabouts, as the Taliban have been denying to respond to their queries, Khaibar said. The abducted activists were in the middle of a new round of protests, travelling around the country to spread a message of peace. They have been calling for all sides of the conflict in Afghanistan to agree upon a ceasefire, a statement from the movement reads. The Taliban has been suspicious about the movement, with some of the militants taking to social media to criticise the activists for being silent against US airstrikes, which they say have at times led to civilian casualties. However, the People's Peace Movement has always claimed to be an impartial group, only advocating for peace in the embattled country.

Seven Afghan soldiers were killed in a Taliban attack on a base in northern Afghanistan on Tuesday, officials said, as local and international forces brace for another deadly winter. According to the Afghan defence ministry, ‘terrorists’ attacked a joint military base in the Dawlat Abad district of Balkh province near the Uzbekistan border. The base was shared between the army and the National Directorate of Security, Afghanistan's secretive intelligence agency. ‘As a result of this attack, seven Afghan army soldiers died and three others were wounded. Meanwhile, in this attack, three NDS staff were also injured,’ the defence ministry said in a statement. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said 20 soldiers had been killed in the attack, including a commander. ‘Six soldiers were wounded and four arrested. The base was captured,’ Mujahid wrote on Twitter. The attack comes one day after the Taliban claimed responsibility for the death of an American special forces soldier, who was killed in Kunduz province, also in the north. The Taliban said they had attacked the vehicle he was in, whereas the US military said he died when a weapons cache he had been investigating exploded. Winter once marked a slowdown in the so-called ‘fighting season’, with Taliban fighters returning to their villages while snow and ice made attacks more difficult to pull off. But in recent years, the distinction between seasons has all but vanished. According to German intelligence officials at Camp Marmal, a German-run base outside Mazar-i-sharif in Balkh, January 2019 saw one of the highest-ever numbers of attacks in the north. ‘If there is no game changer on the strategic level, it will be a 'hot' winter,’ one official told AFP. ‘We are talking about two dozens of security incidents average per day’ across NATO's northern command, he added. In October, local officials said a column of hundreds of Taliban fighters on motorbikes attacked Shortepa district police headquarters in Balkh, briefly capturing the facility. The German intelligence official said the number was exaggerated, with likely only ‘dozens’ of fighters. Still, it highlights how quickly Taliban fighters can mass and then disperse back into the local population. ‘There's fierce fighting going on all through the year, meaning that the Taliban managed to expand into some territories that haven't been their traditional ones,’ the official said.

The Taliban claimed responsibility Monday for an attack on an American convoy that killed one US soldier and, according to the insurgents, wounded several more. The killing is likely to have consequences for ongoing talks between the US and the Taliban. President Donald Trump in September declared negotiations ‘dead’ after the Taliban killed a US soldier in a Kabul bombing. Negotiations have since restarted in Doha, but were earlier this month put on a ‘pause’ following yet another bombing, this time at the Bagram air base north of Kabul. According to US Forces-Afghanistan, one American service member died in combat Monday following an attack. The Americans did not release any additional information. In a WhatsApp message to AFP, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said insurgents ‘blew up an American vehicle in Char Dara district of Kunduz’ overnight Sunday-Monday. He said ‘several’ other US troops and Afghan forces were also wounded. Kunduz province is in northern Afghanistan and has been the site of repeated insurgent attacks and attempts to seize Kunduz city itself. - Deadliest year - Depending on how one qualifies a combat-related death, at least 20 American troops have been killed in action in Afghanistan this year following Monday's announcement. That makes 2019 the deadliest for US forces since combat operations officially finished at the end of 2014, and highlights the woeful security situation that persists across much of Afghanistan. About 2,400 US troops have been killed in Afghanistan since the US-led invasion in October 2001. Currently, the Pentagon has between 12-13,000 troops in Afghanistan. Trump has said he wants to cut that number to about 8,600 or lower as he seeks to show voters he is making good on a campaign pledge to end America's longest war. The deal between the US and the Taliban had been all but signed before Trump nixed it at the last moment, though a relative improvement in Kabul's security situation and the release of two Western hostages in a prisoner swap paved the way for a resumption of talks on December 7. Those talks were paused for a few days following the Bagram attack, but have since started again. The initial version of the deal would have seen the Pentagon pull thousands of troops out of Afghanistan in return for Taliban guarantees they would tackle Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group. But some members of Trump's own Republican party, including close confidant Senator Lindsey Graham, say the idea of the Taliban conducting counter-terrorism operations is risible. Monday's attack comes one day after officials announced preliminary results in Afghanistan's presidential elections that put President Ashraf Ghani on track to secure a second term. The Taliban have long viewed Ghani as an American stooge and have refused to negotiate with him.

* Election commission says Ghani wins 50.6% of vote * US ambassador reacts cautiously to result * Election commission says result subject to review * Preliminary result already delayed by recount Afghanistan's incumbent President Ashraf Ghani won a slim majority of votes in a Sept. 28 election, delayed preliminary results showed on Sunday, after a poll that plunged the country into political crisis and was marred by allegations of fraud. The Independent Election Commission (IEC) said the total turnout in the presidential election was over 1.8 million with Ghani securing 50.64%, enough to win the first round of voting, beating his main challenger Abdullah Abdullah, who currently shares power with Ghani in a unity government. However, the head of IEC, Hawa Alam Nuristani, told a press conference in Kabul that the outcome could change after final results and was still subject to a review by the election complaints' commission. If a review showed Ghani's vote falling below 50% and no other candidate with a majority, a second round of voting would be held, she said. According to the tally released by the IEC on Sunday, the total turnout was 1,824,401 with Ghani winning 923,868 votes while Abdullah finished second with 39.5% and 720,099 votes. The United States, Afghanistan's biggest donor, reacted cautiously to the result. ‘It is important for Afghans to remember: these results are preliminary. Many steps remain before final election results are certified, to ensure the Afghan people have confidence in the results,’ John Bass US ambassador to Afghanistan said in a post on Twitter. In a statement on Sunday, Abdullah's office said he did not accept the preliminary results and that the commission had failed to tackle election fraud. ‘The result that stands is based on fraud and without considering our legitimate demands, will never be accepted,’ the statement said. With 9.7 million registered voters, according to IEC, Afghanistan's 1.9 million voter turnout for the presidential election was low. Last month, IEC began recounting thousands of votes due to what it described as discrepancies in its system. Abdullah's side objected to the recount and called it an attempt to add more votes in favour of Ghani. IEC dismissed those allegations. In protest, Abdullah's supporters blocked IEC offices in seven northern provinces to prevent the recount, creating delays in the results' announcement. Last week, Abdullah allowed the recount but warned that he would not accept a tainted result. The situation echoes 2014 when both Ghani and Abdullah alleged massive fraud by each other, forcing the United States to broker an awkward power-sharing arrangement that made Ghani president and Abdullah his chief executive. Aides close to Ghani, a Western-educated former World Bank official, said the incumbent was not ready for another power sharing deal with Abdullah, a former medical doctor. Without a unifying leader accepted by all sides, Afghanistan could split further along tribal and ethnic lines. The election result also comes at a critical time for Afghanistan as the United States is showing more interest in negotiating a peace settlement with the Taliban to end the war that has dragged on for more than 18 years. Eighty five civilians were killed and more than 370 wounded in militant attacks and violence on the day of the election, the United Nations said last month, and the country plunged into chaos with both Ghani's and Abdullah's camps claiming victory before ballots had been tallied. The UN report accused the Taliban of deliberate attacks against civilians on election day. Many Afghans fear a deeply flawed vote combined with bitter tensions between political camps could drive war-weary Afghanistan into deeper political instability. Election result announcements in Afghanistan are typically followed by violent protests from supporters of losing candidates.

Nearly 50 civilians were wounded in a complex attack that hit a medical facility near the largest US military base in Afghanistan early on Wednesday, officials said. The attack happened at around 6 am (0130 GMT) close to a medical facility located near the southern entrance gates to Bagram military base, Bagram district Governor Abdul Shukoor Qudusi said. According to the district governor, two car bombs were detonated before other assailants were able to penetrate into the facility that was under construction. Gunfire continued for two hours in the area. In addition, an unexploded car bomb was also found at the site of the incident. In a statement, a spokesman for the NATO-led mission Resolute Support confirmed an attack on Bagram airfield. According to the spokesman, it targeted a medical facility being constructed to help Afghan people who live near the base. The attack was ‘quickly contained and repelled’ by Afghan forces and their coalition partners, the statement added. ‘There were no US or coalition casualties, and Bagram remained secure throughout the attack,’ the statement further said. Located some 50 kilometres north of Kabul city, Bagram airfield is the United States' largest military base in Afghanistan. Qudusi added that the area was cordoned off by international forces, and Afghan forces were not allowed to enter the area. So far no group has claimed responsibility for the attack. The attack comes as the US and representatives of the militant Taliban reopened direct talks in Doha last Saturday to find a political solution to the 18-year-long conflict.  The US and Taliban were on the threshold of signing an agreement before the talks were called off on September 5 by US President Donald Trump after a car bomb in Kabul that among others killed two NATO soldiers, including a US serviceman. The talks were launched in July 2018 and continued for almost a year. The draft agreement called for the US to withdraw 5,000 US soldiers from Afghanistan in 135 days as a first instalment. It also called for the Taliban to enter into direct talks with the Afghan government, a step the militants have so far refused to take as they consider Afghan President Ashraf Ghani's government to be ‘puppets’ of Washington.

Gunmen killed six people, including the head of a Japanese aid agency, on Wednesday in an attack on their vehicle in Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan, officials said. The ambush comes a week after a grenade attack on a United Nations vehicle in Kabul heightened fears for those doing humanitarian work amid one of the world's longest-running conflicts. Tetsu Nakamura, head of Peace Japan Medical Services, had been involved in rebuilding Afghan irrigation and agriculture and had recently been granted honorary Afghan citizenship for decades of humanitarian work in the east of the country. The gunmen fled the scene and police have launched a search operation to arrest them, Sohrab Qaderi, a member of the governing council in the province of Nangarhar told Reuters, adding he believed Nakamura had been targeted for his work. "Dr. Nakamura has been doing great work in the reconstruction of Afghanistan, especially in irrigation and agriculture," he said. No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack, but Zabihullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the Afghan Taliban, said the militant group was not involved in the shooting. "The Afghan government strongly condemns the heinous and cowardly attack on Afghans' greatest friend, Dr. Nakamura," said Sediq Sediqqi, a spokesman for Afghan president Ashraf Ghani. "(He) has dedicated all his life to change the lives of Afghans."

Two United States service members were killed in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan on Wednesday, the US military said in a statement. "The cause of the crash is under investigation, however preliminary reports do not indicate it was caused by enemy fire," the statement said. The Afghan Taliban claimed responsibility for downing the helicopter, which it said crashed in Logar province south of the capital Kabul. "US Chinook helicopter shot down and completely destroyed last night while trying to raid Mujahideen (Taliban) position in Pangram area of Sarkh, Logar," Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a tweet. It was not possible to independently verify the group's claim. The Taliban often claims responsibility for accidental crashes, and the Afghan government ruled out their involvement. "There was no involvement of the enemy fire in the helicopter crash and no Afghan security force member is hurt," said Fawad Aman, a spokesman for the Afghan defense ministry. The crash comes a day after the Taliban swapped two Western hostages for three of its commanders held by the Afghan government, raising hopes of a thaw in relations between the militant group and coalition forces.

Security forces have ‘obliterated’ Islamic State (IS) militants in Afghanistan, President Ashraf Ghani said on Tuesday, hours after a prisoner swap with Taliban insurgents raised hopes of a lull in violence in the country. More than 600 fighters from IS, locally known as Daesh, have surrendered with their families to the Afghan government in past weeks. Officials say air strikes by Afghan and coalition forces, lack of funds and low morale have forced the group to give up. ‘No one believed one year ago that we would stand up and today be saying we have obliterated Daesh,’ Ghani told a gathering of elders and officials in Jalalabad, the main city of eastern Nangarhar province that saw a wave of suicide attacks in past years claimed by the jihadists. ‘Now that Daesh militants have surrendered, I ask authorities to treat their families humanely,’ Ghani added. The government says among fighters in its custody are foreign nationals from Pakistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Iran, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and the Maldives. However, the Afghan Taliban, which has been battling IS and the government for control of the country, disputed that. Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban's official spokesman, described Ghani's announcement as ‘absurd’. ‘Kabul admin had 0% role in defeat of Daesh and the proud people of Nangarhar are witnesses,’ he tweeted. The Taliban controls more territory than at any point since the US invasion in 2001, including sections of Nangarhar province. Nangarhar, which shares a long and porous border with neighbouring Pakistan, has long served as the main stronghold of IS, from where militants planned and staged bombings around the country, especially the capital Kabul. Their attacks, targeting foreign nationals and the minority Shia community, have killed hundreds. Corroborating the government's claims on defeating IS is difficult given the province's remote and mountainous terrain, with diverse bands of fighters that often switch sides between militant groups and sometimes pro-government forces. Last month, Washington announced that IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi killed himself during a raid by elite US special operations forces in Syria. The Taliban on Tuesday freed two Western professors in exchange for three of its senior leaders held by the government, in a rare act of cooperation between the warring sides.

At least seven people were killed and ten wounded, including four foreigners, when a minivan packed with explosives detonated during Kabul's morning rush hour Wednesday, an interior ministry spokesman said. The spokesman, Nasrat Rahimi, said the bomb -- targeting an SUV belonging to a private Canadian security company, GardaWorld -- had gone off in a neighbourhood which is near the interior ministry and north of Kabul airport. ‘As a result, seven of our people were killed and ten, including four foreign members of the security company, were wounded,’ he said, describing the dead as Afghan civilians. He did not confirm the nationalities of the foreigners involved. Interior Minister Massoud Andarabi said that one of those killed was a 13-year-old child heading to school. ‘The enemies of our people should know that our people are determined for peace, nothing can stop them from achieving peace,’ he said. A source at the interior ministry said the blast was detonated by a suicide bomber in the vehicle, which officials had earlier described as a car. There was no immediate claim of responsibility. Both the Taliban and the Islamic State group are active in the city, which is one of the deadliest places in the war-torn country for civilians. The blast came one day after Afghan President Ashraf Ghani announced that Kabul would release three high-ranking Taliban prisoners in an apparent prisoner swap with Western hostages who were kidnapped by the insurgents in 2016. The three Taliban prisoners include Anas Haqqani, who was seized in 2014 and whose older brother is the deputy Taliban leader and head of the Haqqani network, a notorious Taliban affiliate. Ghani did not specify the fate of the Western hostages -- an Australian and an American, both professors at the American University in Kabul -- and it was not clear when or where they would be freed. The two, American Kevin King and Australian Timothy Weeks, were kidnapped in August 2016 from the heart of Kabul. They later appeared looking haggard in a Taliban hostage video, with the insurgents going on to say that King was in poor health. Ghani noted in his speech that ‘their health has been deteriorating while in the custody of the terrorists’. He also did not state when or where the Taliban prisoners would be freed. The Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told AFP Wednesday that he could not confirm anything about the swap yet. ‘When our captives reach their destination, the American University professors will be released,’ he said. Ghani said that he hoped the decision would help ‘pave the way’ for the start of unofficial direct talks between his government and the Taliban, who have long refused to negotiate with the administration in Kabul. - Direct talks - Over the past year the US and the Taliban had been holding direct talks seeking a deal that would bring the insurgents to the table for peace talks with Kabul, and allow the US to begin withdrawing troops. But President Donald Trump abruptly ended the negotiations in September, citing continued Taliban violence. Most experts agree that there is no military solution in Afghanistan, and that talks will have to restart again eventually. Until then, however, civilians continue to pay a disproportionate price in the long-running and brutal war. Last month, the United Nations released a report saying an ‘unprecedented’ number of civilians were killed or wounded in Afghanistan from July to September this year. The figures -- 1,174 deaths and 3,139 injured from July 1 until September 30 -- represent a 42 percent increase over the same period last year. The UN laid most of the blame at the feet of ‘anti-government elements’ such as the Taliban, who have been carrying out an insurgency in Afghanistan for more than 18 years.

* Govt to release a leader of country's most feared militant group * Taliban's team for peace talks include Haqqani leaders * US, Australian professors to be released as part of swap * Prisoner exchange could set stage for peace talks Afghanistan will release two senior Taliban commanders and a leader of the Haqqani militant group in exchange for an American and an Australian professor who were kidnapped in 2016, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said on Tuesday. The government's decision to free Anas Haqqani and two other Taliban commanders in a prisoner swap was taken in the hope of securing direct talks with the Taliban, which has hitherto refused to engage with what it calls an illegitimate ‘puppet’ regime in Kabul. ‘In order to pave the way for a face-to-face negotiations with the Taliban, the government has decided to free Taliban prisoners in exchange for two university professors,’ Ghani said in a televised speech. Ghani said Anas Haqqani and Taliban commanders Haji Mali Khan and Hafiz Rashid were being released. All three were captured in 2014. The prisoner exchange comes at a time when efforts were being made to revamp peace talks between the United States and the Taliban. The Haqqani network has in recent years carried large-scale militant attack on civilians. It is believed to be based in Pakistan and is part of the Taliban in Afghanistan. Anas Haqqani is the younger brother of Sirajuddin Haqqani, who is second-in-command in the Afghan Taliban hierarchy and leads the Haqqani network, considered to the deadliest faction of the Afghan Taliban. A Taliban spokesman earlier this year said that the movement was determined to obtain Anas Haqqani's release and named him as a member of a negotiating team that would hold talks with US officials. The Taliban had kidnapped US citizen Kevin King and an Australian Timothy Weeks, both professors, in August 2016 from the American University of Afghanistan in Kabul. Ghani said authorities had been unable to discover where the Taliban were holding the two captive. ‘Information suggests that their health while being held by the terrorists has deteriorated,’ he said. Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan during a three-day visit to Washington in July that he would do his best to help release the American University professors. A Pakistani delegation, including the chief of the powerful Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) spy agency was in Kabul to meet Afghan authorities on Monday. A senior Pakistani official in Islamabad said the exchange of prisoners was discussed by the delegation. According to Afghan officials, the next round of talks between the Taliban and Afghan representatives is slated for this month in Beijing.

The result of the Afghan presidential election may be further delayed, two officials said, after the main challenger to incumbent Ashraf Ghani said on Sunday he would not agree to the addition of hundreds of thousands of what he called suspicious votes to a planned recount. The Afghanistan Independent Election Commission (IEC) said on Saturday that it would recount ballots from more than 8,000 polling stations - almost a third of the total - due to what it called discrepancies in their system. But Abdullah Abdullah, who currently shares power with Ghani in a unity government, said Ghani's side was pushing to include some 300,000 additional votes which did not come through biometric devices used in polling and which must be nullified. "The recounting process should stop, and if the election commission continue with recounting process without our observers, we will act," Abdullah told a cheering crowd of supporters in Kabul, accusing Ghani's camp of fraud, which Ghani denies. "Abdullah's camp is afraid of the recount because they would lose," Daoud Sultanzoy, a senior Ghani campaign leader, told Reuters. The standoff is likely to deepen the political crisis in Afghanistan after the Sept. 28 presidential election, which was marred by allegations of fraud. Preliminary results scheduled for later this week might be delayed again, according to two officials at the election commission who declined to be named as they are not authorised to speak publicly about the count. The result was originally due out on Oct. 19, but slow work on data entry and tackling extensive voter fraud delayed the announcement. Eighty-five civilians were killed and more than 370 wounded in militant attacks and violence on the day of the election, the United Nations said last month. Ghani and Abdullah had both claimed victory before the ballots were tallied. 

At least five children were killed on Saturday when a roadside bomb exploded as they were on their way to school in Afghanistan's northern Takhar province, officials said. Another four were wounded in the incident that took place in Darqad district, provincial council members Mohammad Azam Afzali and Sayed Salahuddin Burhani said. The Taliban maintains a strong presence in the district. However, the militant group did not immediately comment on the bombing. The United Nations' Assistance Mission in Afghanistan documented 8,239 civilian casualties in the first nine months of the year. Suicide and non-suicide explosive devices have been described as the main causes of civilian casualties in the embattled country.