CBS News:

Afghanistan’s Taliban, which spent 20 years fighting the U.S.-backed government in Kabul as an insurgency, is now battling to defend its increasingly draconian rule from resistance forces bent on reclaiming the country from the Islamic hardliners. This latest phase of conflict, focused in the Panjshir and Andarab valleys north of Kabul, has taken a significant toll already on both sides — and on Afghan civilians.

Earlier this month the National Resistance Forces of Afghanistan (NRF) announced a new military operation against Taliban forces aimed at “liberating” the Panjshir and Andarab valleys.

The NRF is an alliance of anti-Taliban forces made up largely of former members of the country’s military and police, many of them trained by U.S. forces during the two-decade war. Formed after Kabul fell to the Taliban last August, the NRF is led by Ahmad Massoud, son of the iconic 1990s anti-Taliban militia leader Ahmad Shah Massoud.

See also:
–Taliban Dissolves Afghanistan’s Human Rights Commission As ‘Unnecessary
–Taliban Say No Christians Live In Afghanistan; US Groups Concerned
–Afghanistan Dispatch: ‘Our Country Has Turned Into A Jail For Women.’

New York Post:

Where is there a war being waged on women? If you’re following the liberal media narrative, the general assumption is that the main threat to American women comes from five conservatives on the Supreme Court. But though the news has been largely buried amid the blitz of hysterical and anguished commentary about abortion, events in Afghanistan point to a stark reality that most Americans might prefer to ignore.

India Today:

The United States will take steps to increase pressure on Afghanistan’s Taliban government to reverse some of its recent decisions restricting the rights of women and girls if the hardline group shows no sign of rescinding the actions on its own.

“We’ve addressed it directly with the Taliban,” State Department spokesperson Ned Price said in a briefing on Monday. “We have a number of tools that, if we feel these won’t be reversed, these won’t be undone, that we are prepared to move forward with.”

The National Interest:

Spokesmen for the National Resistance Front, a group of Afghan soldiers still loyal to the previous government that has waged a guerilla war against the Taliban since the group’s takeover, claimed over the weekend that they had launched an armed offensive and captured three districts in the country’s northern Panjshir province.

The action was the first coordinated offensive against the Taliban since August, according to Ali Nazary, the group’s designated head of foreign relations.

See also:
–Afghanistan: Nearly 20 Million Going Hungry
–As Crisis Grips Afghanistan, The Taliban Tighten Their Draconian Rule
–How The Taliban Are ‘Eliminating Women’ In Afghanistan

Hindustan Times:

The Taliban regime in Afghanistan has now stopped issuing driving licences to women and other provinces of the land-locked country, news agency ANI quoted Afghan media reports.

Before the Taliban took over Afghanistan, women could be seen driving in some of the major cities including Kabul. But now the regime has imposed this restriction.

The human rights situation in Afghanistan has worsened since the Taliban’s return to power last year. From banning girls from schools above sixth grade to not allowing women to take trips alone, there have been reports of women rights being snatched away by the new government.

Bloomberg:

The Taliban takeover of Afghanistan and the resulting cut in international aid has led to a worsening humanitarian crisis, according to the latest report by a Pentagon watchdog that has spent more than a decade tracking conditions in the war-torn nation.

More than 24 million people are now in need of humanitarian assistance in Afghanistan, up from about 18.4 million last year, the U.S. Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, or Sigar, said in a report late Tuesday night.  

“Some 70% of households reported being unable to cover basic food and non-food needs, reflecting the impact of decline in household incomes,” according to the study, citing State Department figures. It went on to cite reports of people selling their kidneys as evidence of how dire the situation has become.

BusinessGhana:

An ex-general in the Afghan army says he and many other former soldiers and politicians are preparing to launch a new war against the Taliban

Lt Gen Sami Sadat said that eight months of Taliban rule has convinced many Afghans that military action is the only way forward.

He said operations could begin next month after the Islamic Eid festival, when he plans to return to Afghanistan.

CNN:

Thirty-three people are thought to have died in a blast at a mosque in Afghanistan’s Kunduz province, according to the Taliban.

Among the dead are children, according to Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid, while a further 43 people were injured in the explosion.

Mujahid said the blast took place during Friday players at the mosque in the Imam Sahib district of Kunduz province.

It comes a day after explosions also struck Kunduz, and another city, Mazar-i-Sharif in northern Afghanistan. Separate explosions hit learning facilities in western Kabul on Tuesday, killing students.

A series of deadly blasts, mainly targeting the Hazara Shia community, have rocked several Afghan cities over the past week.

Most of this week’s attacks were claimed by ISIS affiliate group and Taliban rival ISIS-Khorasan (ISIS-K).

See also: Iran’s Worst Fears In Afghanistan Are Coming True As ISIS Tests Red Line

Al Jazeera:

Since taking over Afghanistan last year, the Taliban rulers have reintroduced draconian restrictions on freedoms and movements, particularly directed at women, that are reminiscent of their last regime in the 1990s.

Increasingly though, over the last few weeks, the Taliban leaders, particularly from its Ministry of Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, have announced many new restrictions, even as criticism and international pressure mount against them.

See also: Afghanistan: Taliban Announces Ban On Poppy Harvest

The Washington Post:

A U.S. Navy reservist and his brother were released by the Taliban on Friday after a months-long campaign by the Biden administration to secure their freedom, the State Department said.

Safi Rauf and Anees Khalil, a U.S. green-card holder, were detained in December. The former Afghan refugees founded the Human First Coalition, which worked to evacuate people fleeing the country after the Taliban took over Kabul last year. The group later shifted to providing humanitarian aid to the war-ravaged country.

The Biden administration also is seeking the release of Mark Frerichs, a Navy veteran, who has been detained by the Taliban since before the Trump administration struck a deal with the militants in February 2020 to end the 20-year war.

Left Voice:

Despite a historic humanitarian crisis, the Biden administration’s economic measures against Afghanistan, as well as the sanctions on Russia and war in Ukraine are making it harder for Afghans to access food and survive. Biden’s policies are also making it harder for Afghans fighting back against the Taliban.

See also:
–The Taliban Hard-Liners Are Winning
–In Afghanistan, Private Aid Fills Void Left By Bureaucratic Failure

Foreign Policy:

Afghanistan’s girls were due to return to school today, seven months after many were frozen out following the Taliban’s takeover in August 2021. And many of them did—for a few hours at least, until a last-minute government announcement postponing their return caught the world by surprise. The Taliban said schools would reopen for female students only when the government had decided on the appropriate uniform for girls, one in line with “sharia law and Afghan tradition.”