DefenceTalkChina is ready to deepen “friendly and cooperative” relations with Afghanistan, a government spokeswoman said Monday, after the Taliban seized control of the country. Beijing has sought to maintain unofficial ties with the Taliban throughout the US’ withdrawal from Afghanistan, which spurred an advance by the Islamist hardliners across the country that saw them capture […]

DefenceTalkThe Taliban declared the war in Afghanistan over after taking control of the presidential palace in Kabul while Western nations scrambled on Monday to evacuate their citizens amid chaos at the airport even as a tense calm gripped the capital. President Ashraf Ghani fled the country on Sunday as the militants entered the capital virtually […]

DefenceTalkThe withdrawal of Western troops from Afghanistan is the “biggest debacle” that NATO has suffered since its founding, the head of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party said Monday. With the Taliban sweeping to power after NATO troops withdrew, CDU party chief Armin Laschet said: “It is evident that this engagement of the international community was […]

DefenceTalkThe Taliban seized two more Afghan cities Tuesday — including one just 200 kilometres (125 miles) from Kabul — as tens of thousands of people fled their homes in the north for the relative safety of the capital and other centres. But despite the bloodshed, and with eight provincial capitals now toppled in the insurgents’ […]

DefenceTalkUS Central Intelligence Agency chief William Burns was due in Israel Tuesday for talks on common foe Iran, as rising tensions overshadow talks on restoring a landmark nuclear deal. A spokesman for Prime Minister Naftali Bennett gave no details of the agenda for the CIA chief’s talks in Israel. But the Walla News website said […]

DefenceTalkSyria’s air defences intercepted Israeli missiles over Homs province early Thursday, the second airstrike this week, Syrian state media reported. A military source told Syrian state news agency SANA that the attack had caused no casualties, inflicting only material damage. “At 01:13 am… the Israeli enemy carried out an aerial attack targeting several positions in […]

DefenceTalkTajikistan on Thursday checked the combat readiness of its armed forces in the biggest such exercise in the country’s history as the Taliban makes sweeping gains in neighboring Afghanistan. The 230,000 members of the Central Asian country’s security forces were alerted for the test at 2:00 a.m. local time (2300 GMT Wednesday) on the order […]

DefenceTalkIsraeli air strikes in central Syria killed at least 11 government troops and militiamen late Tuesday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The strikes were the first carried out by Israel in Syria since 11 days of heavy fighting with the Hamas rulers of Gaza ended with an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire on May 21, the […]

DefenceTalkThe US pullout from Afghanistan is more than 50 percent complete, the Pentagon said Tuesday, as it approaches its September 11 deadline to remove troops. Since President Joe Biden ordered the departure from Afghanistan in April, the Department of Defense has withdrawn the equivalent of approximately 500 C-17 loads of material, the US military’s Central […]

DefenceTalkThe Iraqi army said Sunday two drones were destroyed above a base housing US troops, one month after the same base was targeted by an armed drone. The US military’s C-RAM defence system was activated to shoot down the drones above the Ain al-Assad base, located in Iraq’s western desert, the Iraqi military said. Several […]