The Taliban attacked an Afghan army checkpoint in eastern Laghman province, killing six soldiers and wounding five, the government said Monday.
The insurgents claimed responsibility for the assault, which took place on Sunday night, just days after U.S. special envoy in new talks with the Taliban in Qatar reemphasized the need for a reduction in violence.
The statement from the Afghan Defense Ministry said the troops pushed back the attackers, adding that the Taliban also suffered casualties but without providing specific figures.
Last week, U.S. special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad met with Taliban representatives in Doha, the capital of the Gulf Arab state of Qatar, where the insurgents maintain a political office. He stressed the need for a cease-fire, and after Doha, Khalilzad also visited Islamabad and New Delhi to discuss the Afghan peace process with Pakistani and Indian officials.
On Monday, four bombs, one placed under a garbage bin and the other three by the roadside, went off in northern Kabul, wounding four civilians, including a child, Afghan officials said.
The roadside bombs were spaced within 10-20 meters (yards) of one another, said Kabul police spokesman Ferdaws Faramarz. The wounded child is a 12-year-old girl, he said and added that the police are searching the area where the bombs struck.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the bombings and their targets remained unknown. Both the Taliban and the Islamic State group are active in Kabul and its surroundings and both frequently target the military and civilians.
Kabul has witnessed several low-scale attacks over the past seven days, including explosions from two hand grenades on Sunday night in the western part of Kabul. There were no casualties in that attack, according to Tariq Arian, the spokesman for the Interior Ministry.
Last Thursday, a rocket targeted a power station and two roadside bombs went off in different areas of Kabul, also causing no casualties. No one has claimed responsibility for those attacks.
On Saturday, a gunman opened fire on civilians in eastern Paktia province, killing three worshipers who were returning home after evening prayers, said provincial governor spokesman Abdullah Hasrat. There was no claim of responsibility and Hasrat said an investigation was underway.
Meanwhile, an exchange of prisoners between the Afghan government and the Taliban has continued under a deal signed in February between the U.S. and the Taliban in Qatar. The deal stipulates that the government free 5,000 Taliban prisoners while the insurgents are to release 1,000 captives, an exchange that is expected to lead to intra-Afghan negotiations.
The exchange has come in stages and so far, and the government in Kabul says it has freed 1,000 Taliban prisoners. The insurgents have confirmed the release of 300 Taliban members.
For their part, the Taliban say they have freed 225 of their captives, including Afghan defense and security personnel members — a release not confirmed by the government.
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Australia’s most decorated living veteran, Ben Roberts-Smith, did not apply for bail when the war crime murder charges against him were listed in a Sydney court Wednesday.
Roberts-Smith was awarded both the Victoria Cross and Medal of Gallantry for his service in Afghanistan and is only the second Australian veteran of the Afghanistan campaign to be charged with a war crime.
The charges follow a military report released in 2020 that found evidence that elite Australian Special Air Service and commando regiment troops unlawfully killed 39 Afghan prisoners, farmers and other noncombatants. Around 40,000 Australian military personnel served in Afghanistan between 2001 and 2021, of whom 41 were killed.
The allegations against Roberts-Smith relate to the deaths of five Afghan people who died in 2009 and 2012 while he served in Afghanistan as an elite SAS corporal. Police allege he either shot his victims or ordered a subordinate to shoot them in Uruzgan province where Australia's forces were based.
Police said he had been charged Tuesday with five counts of war crime murder. But the charges laid in court Wednesday were two counts of war crime murder and three counts of aiding or abetting a war crime murder. All charges carry the same potential maximum sentence of life in prison.
The charges allege Roberts-Smith killed and caused a subordinate to kill at Kakarak village on April 12, 2009. He allegedly caused a subordinate to kill at Darwan village on Sept. 11, 2012. He allegedly killed and caused a subordinate to kill at Syahchow village on Oct. 20, 2012.
Australian law defines war crime murder as the intentional killing in a context of armed conflict of a person who is not taking an active part in the hostilities, such as a civilian, prisoner of war or a wounded soldier.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese described Roberts-Smith's arrest as a “difficult time” for the Australian Defense Force.
“We should give thanks every day for the men and women who wear our uniform, who are prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice on behalf of our nation, to keep our Australian way of life going forward. That doesn’t change,” Albanese told Sky News television.
“It’s important that this not be politicized, and I have no intention of commenting on what is a legal process,” Albanese added.
Opposition leader Angus Taylor called on the federal government, known as the Commonwealth of Australia, to pay for the legal defenses of all military personnel prosecuted for war crimes, including Roberts-Smith.
“It is an imperative that the Commonwealth provide anyone who’s prosecuted in this process, including Ben Roberts-Smith, with ... the financial support they need to defend themselves and to ensure that there is a fair trial,” Taylor told reporters. “The presumption of innocence is crucial.”
John Howard, who as Australia's then-prime minister first committed Australian troops to fight in Afghanistan in 2001, said Roberts-Smith's arrest would emotionally impact millions of Australians.
“This is a difficult issue for many, as it tests to the limits not only our respect for Australian values, but the deep and special reverence we have for those who put their lives on the line to keep us safe,” Howard said in a statement.
The Australian Special Air Service Association, which represents current and former members of the elite regiment, said some may be required to testify against former comrades. Others must defend themselves against “grave allegations.”
“These realities are deeply confronting for a close and enduring community,” the association said in a statement.
Roberts-Smith, 47, spent the night in jail after he was arrested at the Sydney Airport on Tuesday morning, and he did not appear in court either in person or by video link Wednesday.
His lawyers did not enter pleas to the charges or apply for his release on bail. The case was adjourned until June 4.
A civil court has already found similar allegations against Roberts-Smith credible in a defamation suit he brought after newspapers published articles in 2018 accusing him of a range of war crimes. In 2023, a federal judge rejected Roberts-Smith’s claims and ruled that he likely killed four noncombatants unlawfully in 2009 and 2012.
But while the civil court found the war crimes allegations were mostly proven on a balance of probabilities, the war crime murder charges would have to be proved in a criminal court to a higher standard of beyond reasonable doubt.
Media magnate Kerry Stokes helped fund Roberts-Smith's civil court action. Roberts-Smith quit his job as a state manager of Stokes' Seven West Media in 2023 after losing the defamation case.
During his defamation trial, Roberts-Smith had testified that he had never killed an unarmed Afghan and denied ever committing a war crime. He claimed he has the victim of spiteful fellow soldiers' lies and of others' envy of his medals.
Roberts-Smith is the second Australian veteran of the Afghanistan campaign to be charged with a war crime.
Former SAS soldier Oliver Schulz has pleaded not guilty to a charge of war crime murder. He is accused of shooting Afghan man Dad Mohammad three times in the head in an Uruzgan province wheat field in 2012.
Prosecutors and defense lawyers said Schulz's trial is unlikely to be held before 2027.
In 2024, the government announced that several serving and former Australian military commanders had been stripped of medals over allegations of war crimes committed in Afghanistan.
Holding commanders to account for alleged misconduct of Australian special forces between 2005 and 2016 had been recommended in the war crime investigation report made public in 2020.
FILE - Britain's Queen Elizabeth II greets Corp. Ben Roberts-Smith from Australia, who was recently awarded the Victoria Cross, during an audience at Buckingham Palace in London, Nov. 15, 2011. (Anthony Devlin/Pool via AP, File)
FILE - Ben Roberts-Smith arrives at the Federal Court in Sydney, Australia, on June 9, 2021. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft, File)
