Barack Obama to report sufficient progress in halting Taliban momentum to allow small-scale pullout of US troops in July.

The Taliban on Sunday scoffed at NATO plans to hand over most security responsibilities to Afghan forces in the coming three years while retaining an option to keep international troops in the country beyond that time if necessary.

On a recent Friday when their country’s election crisis continued to unfold, a clique well to do Afghans flew kites on dusty Nadir Shah Hill in Kabul. The hill is famous for this — sometimes it is simply called Kite Hill. It is a dusty, rutted...

There is no one as colourful and controversial among the warlords of Afghanistan as General Abdul Rashid Dostum, a man of immense power and huge wealth whose name became synonymous with bloodshed and betrayal during the long years of conflict. General...