An official from Afghanistan's National Security Council told RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan on July 29 that the government has confirmed Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar has been dead since 2013.
The inclusion of India and Pakistan into the SCO does boost the group's international profile, but it could come at the expense of the Central Asian members.
Fierce fighting continues in northern Afghanistan's Faryab Province and according to one member of parliament from the region, the militants have the upper hand and the situation is close to disastrous.
The Afghan intelligence agency says the leader of the Islamic State (IS) extremist group in the Afghanistan and Pakistan region has been killed in a air strike.
India and Pakistan, the newest prospective members of a growing economic club formed by Russia and China in the Eurasian region, hailed the emergence of an economic axis not centered around the West.
Pakistan's government says a meeting on July 7 between Afghan government and Afghan Taliban representatives ended with an agreement to continue talks toward achieving peace and reconciliation.
Afghanistan is under attack from "an unprecedented convergence" of Taliban insurgents, more than 7,000 foreign fighters, and other violent groups including the Islamic State, Afghanistan's ambassador to the United Nations said.
A suicide bomber and several gunmen staged a brazen attack on the Afghan parliament on June 22, killing two civilians and sparking a battle with security forces, while in the north a second district in two days fell to Taliban militants.
Afghan security forces say they are preparing to launch a counterattack in a district of the northern province of Kunduz that has been seized by Taliban fighters and Central Asian militants loyal to the Islamic State (IS) militant group.
The Islamic State is in an "initial exploratory phase" and is looking for ways to expand in Afghanistan, the Pentagon said in a report to Congress June 17.
Pakistan's interior minister on June 12 said the government was ready to throw out more foreign aid groups, one day after expelling Save The Children.
A new report says Afghanistan is increasingly relying on a "cheap but dangerous" national militia of some 30,000 fighters, some of whom have committed serious abuses in the communities they are supposed to protect.
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