The 19-year-old Taliban deserter is haunted by the memory of the attack on a police checkpoint in northern Afghanistan in August.

U.S. peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad held on Saturday the first official talks with Afghanistan's Taliban since President Donald Trump declared a near-certain peace deal with the insurgents dead in September.

The president paid a surprise visit to US soldiers and said the US and the Taliban have been engaged in talks.

Zalmay Khalilzad tweeted that a recent military campaign targeting the ISIS was an example of an "effective operations by U.S./Coalition & Afghan forces as well as the Taliban."

U.S. Special Envoy Zalmay Khalilzad, after a visit to Kabul, will travel to Qatar to rejoin talks with Taliban negotiators on steps that could lead to a ceasefire and a settlement to the war in Afghanistan, the State Department said on Wednesday.

U.S. special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad arrived in Kabul on Wednesday to meet Afghanistan's president to discuss ways of resuming peace talks, Afghan government officials said, after negotiations with the Taliban collapsed in September.

Germany's defense minister has called for Afghan politicians to play a role in peace talks with the Taliban. The militant Islamist group has refused to engage with Kabul, instead focusing on direct talks with Washington. German Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer told a news conference in Kabul on Tuesday that the Afghan government should not be left out of efforts to forge peace with Taliban insurgents. "We believe that peace talks, and a peace agreement, should also include Afghan politicians and leaders," she said. The German minister, who is also the leader of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU), made the comments alongside Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on...

U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said on Monday that any future troop drawdowns in Afghanistan were "not necessarily" linked to a deal with Taliban insurgents, suggesting some lowering of force levels may happen irrespective of the ongoing peace push.

U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said on Monday that any future troop drawdowns in Afghanistan were "not necessarily" linked to a deal with Taliban insurgents, suggesting some lowering of force levels may happen irrespective of the ongoing peace push.