Afghanistan

Abdul Malik Niazi, a Taliban official, told The Media Line that “the accident occurred on the main highway linking Kabul with Nangarhar province. 

Director of Russia’s Federal Security Service Alexander Bortnikov said the group’s “Khorasan Branch” had stepped up efforts to recruit members from other extremist groups.

The attack, which killed at least 24 people and injured more than 70, was the latest in a series of major strikes on infrastructure in the Pakistani province that borders Iran and Afghanistan.

Russia sees a need to work with Kabul as it faces a major security threat from Islamist militant groups based in a string of countries from Afghanistan to the Middle East.

Iran’s government has not officially acknowledged the role of these foreign militias.

Three personnel have been found alive and transferred to the hospital, the officer added.

Supporters of Muhammad Saad bin Riaz say the accusations do not match his work as a researcher and journalist focused on regional conflicts and information warfare.

AfghanEvac President Shawn VanDiver criticized the move, describing it as giving the refugees a choice between "the world’s number one refugee crisis to the world’s number two refugee crisis.”

Agha Jan, a close associate of the late Taliban founder Mullah Mohammad Omar, served as finance minister in the group’s first government prior to the 9/11 attacks.

Police arrested and charged Ben Roberts-Smith, 47, with five counts of war crimes last week over the murder of five unarmed Afghan civilians between 2009 and 2012.