In the days before a suicide bomber killed 13 service personnel at Kabul airport in 2021, U.S. military commanders were aware of the threat and twice missed chances to take out the deadly terrorist network behind the plot, according to a new book.
The Taliban, who had seized control of Afghanistan, refused a request to raid a hotel that was a known staging post for ISIS-K, who carried out the atrocity.
And at around the same time, superior officers vetoed
King Charles’s “lack of sparkle” could be to blame for Australia ditching the Commonwealth Games, according to a columnist based Down Under.
The state of Victoria in the southeast of the country recently announced that it would no longer host the sporting event in 2026 due to greater domestic financial needs.
However, as Australia is reportedly reconsidering the monarchy – with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese promising a referendum on becoming a republic if he wins another term in office –
OSCE Secretary General Helga Schmid gave an order in Vienna on the evening of Feb. 24 to evacuate international staff from Ukraine and instructed her chief monitor there to “facilitate the relocation of national mission members within the country where possible and if requested,” according to a statement delivered by Schmid to a special meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council in Vienna on Feb. 27.
But for the hundreds of Ukrainian OSCE staffers, relocation wasn’t an option — and even
NATO has warned there are no signs Russia is moving troops away from Ukraine’s border and actually seems to be building its forces, despite Moscow saying that tanks are being withdrawn as Vladimir Putin insists he is ready to talk.
Jens Stoltenberg, NATO’s chief executive, said today that Russia ‘always moves forces back and forth’ as videos emerged appearing to show tanks leaving the frontlines – adding that more troops are still arriving in the region.
‘What we see is
A week later, General Austin S. Miller, the commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, flew into Doha, and Khalilzad met him for breakfast. They were joined by Nader Nadery and Abdul Matin Bek, two young advisers to Ghani, who had spoken with Taliban envoys. Nadery and Bek reported that several Taliban had boasted contemptuously about defeating America. “They’re running with their tails between their legs,” one of the Taliban negotiators had exclaimed. Bek later told Khalilzad to “wake up.” “Please,
Even at midnight, the Dubai airport is sweltering in mid-August. My colleague and cameraman Eric O’Connor and I stood on the tarmac, sweating our way through one of the hardest decisions of our careers. It was the evening of August 14th, we were on assignment for “PBS NewsHour,” and the Taliban seemed poised to take Kabul. We had checked in, cancelled, and then checked in again for our flight to the Afghan capital. Should we get on that plane? We
