The Taliban has killed at least 47 people in separate attacks in Afghanistan, despite the beginning of peace talks with Afghan officials in Moscow.

The armed group launched a pre-dawn attack on an army base in northern Kunduz on Tuesday, killing 26 members of the security forces, Mohammad Yusouf Ayubi, head of the provincial council said.

There were at least 23 soldiers and three members of the local police force among those slain.

According to Ayubi, 12 troops were wounded in the Taliban onslaught, which lasted for over two hours until reinforcements arrived at the besieged base and the attackers were repelled.

"Day by day, the security situation is getting worse in and around Kunduz city," said Ayubi, adding there are fears the city could again fall into the hands of the Taliban as it did briefly on two occasions in recent years - in September 2015 and in October 2016.

In the northern Baghlan province, at least 11 policemen were killed when fighters stormed a checkpoint, provincial officials said on Tuesday.

The attacks were reported as Taliban representatives began meetings with prominent Afghan figures, including former President Hamid Karzai, opposition leaders and tribal elders, but not Kabul government officials.

In the checkpoint attack, the Taliban targeted the local police force in the province's Baghlani Markazi district on Monday night, triggering a gunfight that lasted for almost two hours, said Safder Mohsini, head of the provincial council.

Five policemen were also wounded and the Taliban seized all the weapons and ammunition from the checkpoint before reinforcements arrived, he said.

"They arrived there late, fought back and managed to get the checkpoint under control," he added.

Near-daily attacks

Earlier on Monday, the Taliban targeted a local pro-government militia in a village in northern Samangan province, killing 10 people, including a woman, said Sediq Azizi, spokesman for the provincial governor.

Four people were also wounded in that attack, in Samangan's Dara-I Suf district, he said.

According to Azizi, the Taliban targeted local villagers, including women and children. As the area is very remote, the villagers have their own militia to provide security for their area and defend their homes from armed fighters.

The Taliban claimed both attacks in statements to the media.

They have been staging near-daily attacks and inflicting heavy casualties on the embattled Afghan army and security forces, as the United States is eager to pull out of the war-torn country.

'A step forward'

The two-day meeting in Russia's capital between the Taliban and mainly Afghan opposition figures is seen as another step in a process aimed at resolving the country's 17-year war, one that has escalated since the appointment of US peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad last September.

But the Moscow meeting has sidelined Afghan President Ashraf Ghani's government, which has criticised the gathering.

Ghani has repeatedly called on the Taliban to begin talks with his government, which the Taliban refuses to recognise, calling it a "puppet" of the US.

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He was excluded from six days of discussions between the armed group and the US in the Qatari capital, Doha, last month that reportedly sealed the outline of a peace deal.

Abdullah Abdullah, the country's chief executive, said on Monday that the Afghan government should be at the centre of any peace talks, adding that Kabul "would prefer the Moscow meeting had a different shape".

Abdullah said that the Taliban was the biggest obstacle to peace, but that if the Moscow meeting creates "an opening for real peace talks, it would still be a step forward".

Among those attending the meeting is Haneef Atmar, a former national security adviser who is running against Ghani in presidential elections set for July. Former Governor Atta Muhammad Noor and former Afghan President Hamid Karzai, both Ghani's rivals, are also attending.

The Taliban is scheduled to hold another round of peace talks with the US in Doha on February 25.</s>Afghan official: Taliban attack on army base in northern Kunduz province kills 26, mostly soldiers and policemen

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghan official: Taliban attack on army base in northern Kunduz province kills 26, mostly soldiers and policemen.</s>Afghan official: Taliban attack on army base in northern Kunduz province kills 26, mostly soldiers and policemen

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghan official: Taliban attack on army base in northern Kunduz province kills 26, mostly soldiers and policemen.</s>Afghan official: Taliban attack on army base in northern Kunduz province kills 26, mostly soldiers and policemen

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghan official: Taliban attack on army base in northern Kunduz province kills 26, mostly soldiers and policemen.</s>The Latest on developments in Afghanistan (all times local):

An Afghan official says a pre-dawn Taliban attack on an army base in northern Kunduz province has killed at least 26 members of the country's security forces.

Mohammad Yusouf Ayubi, head of the provincial council, says there are at least 23 soldiers and three members of the local police force among those slain in the attack early on Tuesday.

Ayubi says 12 troops were also wounded and that the Taliban onslaught at the base on the outskirts of the provincial capital, Kunduz city, lasted for over two hours.

He says the attackers were repelled after reinforcements arrived at the besieged base.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the Kunduz attack. He says insurgents overran three police checkpoints as the attack unfolded.

Afghan officials say 21 people have been killed in the latest Taliban attacks in the country, including 11 policemen who were slain when the insurgents stormed a checkpoint in northern Baghlan province.

Safder Mohsini, head of the provincial council, says the checkpoint attack late on Monday night in Baghlan's district of Baghlani Markazi also wounded five local policemen. He says the Taliban made away with all the weapons and ammunition from the security post.

In northern Samangan province, the Taliban targeted a local pro-government militia, killing 10 people there, including a woman.

Sediq Azizi, spokesman for the provincial governor, says four people were also wounded in that attack on Monday morning in Samangan's Dara-I Suf district.

The Taliban have claimed both attacks. Insurgents carry out near-daily attacks on Afghan forces.</s>Taliban to take part in 'intra-Afghan' talks in Moscow

ISLAMABAD (AP) — The Taliban said Monday they will participate in what they call "intra-Afghan" talks in Moscow designed to bring together prominent Afghan figures, including former President Hamid Karzai, opposition figures and tribal elders — but no Kabul government officials.

The two-day meeting in the Russian capital, which starts Tuesday, is seen as another step in a process aimed at resolving Afghanistan's 17-year war, a process that has accelerated since the appointment last September of U.S. peace envoy, Zalmay Khalilzad.

Khalilzad has been holding separate negotiations with the Taliban even as he presses for a dialogue that would bring together all key Afghan players.

However, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani's office criticized the meeting in Moscow, saying that Afghan politicians attending the gathering were doing so "in order to gain power." Ghani's chief adviser, Fazel Fazly, tweeted that it was "regrettable."

Suhail Shaheen, spokesman for the Taliban's political office in the Gulf Arab state of Qatar, confirmed the insurgents' participation. A 10-member Taliban delegation would be led by Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai.

The Taliban have refused to talk to Ghani's government, which they denounce as a U.S. puppet.

A statement released on Monday by Afghans attending the Moscow meeting described it as "the first step toward intra-Afghan dialogue." Along with Karzai, the former president, many of the 38 delegates from Kabul have held prominent government positions. Two presidential hopefuls are among those going to Moscow, including Hanif Atmar, who resigned as Ghani's security adviser last August, apparently over differences with the president.

Also on the list are powerful warlords turned politicians and former Taliban insurgents who reconciled with the Kabul administration.

The only woman on the list, lawmaker and activist Fawzia Koofi, has been an outspoken advocate for women's rights and girls' education, once posting pictures of her daughters on her Twitter feed asking the Taliban: "What about my daughters' education?" The Taliban ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001 imposing harsh forms of Islamic law limiting women's education and rights.

Karzai tweeted he was traveling to Moscow with "a message of peace, unity, sovereignty and progress for all of us; the men, women and children of our beloved country."

However, Abdullah Abdullah, the country's chief executive, said the Afghan government should be at the center of any peace talks, adding that Kabul "would prefer the Moscow meeting had a different shape."

The Taliban are the biggest obstacle to peace, Abdullah said, but if the Moscow meeting creates "an opening for real peace talks, it would still be a step forward."

The Taliban have been staging near-daily attacks, targeting and inflicting heavy casualties on the embattled Afghan army and security forces.

The Moscow gathering is likely to further isolate Ghani, who has been irked by Khalilzad's direct talks with the Taliban as well as the U.S. envoy's successive rounds of talks in regional countries.

The Russian government has denied orchestrating the meeting. Monday's statement from Kabul said the Moscow-based Council of Afghan Society, an organization of the Afghan diaspora in Russia, was behind it.

It said the participants would discuss a range of issues, from a cease-fire, supporting Khalilzad initiatives to further "intra-Afghan" talks and ways to ensure a "powerful and democratic central government" in Afghanistan.

A statement from the Taliban said the Moscow conference aims to "open channels to reaching an understanding with non-government Afghan political groups" and that the Taliban would use the opportunity to clarify their position, based on Islamic Shariah law, for the future and an intra-Afghan Islamic system of governance.

Washington has made no comments so far about the Russia-hosted talks.

Since the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States, Washington has spent more than $1 trillion on Afghanistan. President Donald Trump has repeatedly expressed his desire to bring U.S. troops home, adding to the urgency of Khalilzad's mission.

Reports late last year suggested Trump was considering withdrawing at least half of Washington's estimated 15,000 troops from Afghanistan by the summer.</s>The extraordinary two-day gathering in Moscow saw Taliban leaders stand shoulder-to-shoulder with former president Hamid Karzai.

MOSCOW: The Taliban on Wednesday (Feb 6) hailed unprecedented talks with Afghan politicians as "very successful", despite disagreements over women's rights and the group's demand for an Islamic constitution in the war-torn country.

The extraordinary two-day gathering in Moscow saw Taliban leaders stand shoulder-to-shoulder with former president Hamid Karzai, who called the insurgents his "brothers" as both sides agreed to seek lasting peace.

No government official was invited to the roundtable, which saw heavyweight Afghan politicians and other sworn enemies of the Taliban praying and dining with the militants.

It was the second time President Ashraf Ghani was frozen out of such talks in recent weeks, after the US held entirely separate discussions with the insurgents in Doha without Kabul.

Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, who headed the Taliban delegation, made a rare appearance in front of international media besides a smiling Karzai.

"This meeting was very successful," the black-turbaned Taliban official told reporters, flanked by the former president who was appointed after US-led forces routed the Taliban in 2001.

"We agreed on many points and I am hopeful that in future, we can succeed more further, and finally we can reach a solution. We can find a complete peace in Afghanistan."

All parties agreed to support the Doha peace talks with American negotiators that President Donald Trump described on Tuesday as "constructive".

The nine-point statement issued on behalf of all parties also agreed on the complete withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan.

A timetable for that exit was "not fixed so far ... but we are negotiating this", Stanikzai said.

Earlier Wednesday, a senior Taliban official told reporters the US had agreed to withdraw half its ground troops by the end of April - a claim refuted by NATO and the US State Department.

Delegates at the Moscow meet also crucially opened the door for the government to attend future talks - despite the Taliban's steadfast refusal to engage with Kabul.

"The process should be all inclusive, which means the government can also be invited, and would be part of this," said Mohammad Hanif Atmar, one of Ghani's chief rivals, who was present in Moscow.

The Taliban consider the Kabul administration a US puppet but Ghani's allies in Washington insist Afghans should lead the peace process.

The months-long push by the US to engage the Taliban has ostensibly been aimed at convincing them to negotiate with Kabul.

"Ultimately, we need to get to a Taliban-Afghanistan discussion," General Joseph Votel, the head of US Central Command, told US lawmakers.

"Only they will be able to resolve the key issues involved in the dispute."

Ghani said he had spoken late on Tuesday with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who had stressed the importance of "ensuring the centrality of the Afghan government in the peace process".

The Afghan president - who has vented frustration as his friends and enemies have negotiated the future of his country - describing the Moscow talks as "nothing more than fantasy".

Karzai, who was president from 2001 to 2014, said he was "happy" to sit down with his former foes.

"We always wanted to speak to our brothers, the Taliban," he said.

He said delegates agreed on "almost" everything - but consensus was not reached over the Taliban's demand for an Islamic constitution, and the group's views on women.

Fawzia Koofi, one of two female delegates among the dozens of men at the table, questioned the militants' insistence that women's rights be upheld "in accordance with Islamic values".

"I ... (lived) in Afghanistan during (the) Taliban time, and I know their interpretation of Islamic rights of (a) woman is different," Koofi, head of Afghanistan's parliamentary Committee on Women and Human Rights, told reporters.

She voted against the joint statement - but said delegates had promised her concerns would be taken up at future negotiations.

Under their rule, the Taliban severely curtailed women's liberties, barring them from work and school, and confined women to their homes - only allowing them outside with a male escort and hidden beneath a burqa.

In the Russian capital, in scenes unthinkable under their regime, the Taliban sat and listened as women defended their hard-earned freedoms in a modern Afghanistan.

The Moscow conference was the Taliban's most significant engagement with Afghan leaders in years.

But it was also striking because the Taliban - who banned television, cinemas and photography when they ruled Afghanistan - are rarely so visible.

Their leadership is seldom seen in public and scenes of Taliban officials outlining their manifesto for live television is virtually unheard of.

Speaking to the Afghan envoys, they promised not to seek a monopoly on power but an "inclusive Islamic system" of governance for Afghanistan.</s>A delegation of Taliban officials was set to hold talks in Moscow with prominent Afghan figures, including former President Hamid Karzai, but no government officials.

 

 The February 5 meeting was criticized by Afghan President Ashraf Ghani's office, and comes as broader peace talks aimed at ending the country's 17-year war appear to be gaining momentum.

 

 The Russian government has denied organizing the meeting, which is being hosted by a Moscow-based organization of Afghan diaspora leaders.

 

 However, it's highly unlikely such a high-profile event would be allowed to take place in the Russian capital without the Kremlin's blessing.

 

 Afghanistan's chief executive, Abdullah Abdullah, said the Afghan government should be at the center of any peace talks, saying that Kabul "would prefer the Moscow meeting had a different shape."

 

 He also said Taliban were the biggest obstacle to peace, but that if the Moscow meeting creates "an opening for real peace talks, it would still be a step forward."

 

 The United States, meanwhile, has not commented publicly on the meeting, which will include a 10-member Taliban delegation led by Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai.

 

 Also expected to attend are powerful Afghan warlords-turned-politicians.

 

 In a post to Twitter, Karzai said he would be bringing to the talks “a message of peace, unity sovereignty and progress for all of us."

 

 Since his appointment last September, U.S. peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad has been holding separate negotiations with the Taliban, and he’s also pressed for talks to bring together all major parties to the conflict.</s>Moscow: The Taliban began an extraordinary meeting with high-ranking Afghan politicians -- including women -- on Tuesday in Moscow, where rivals of President Ashraf Ghani called for an interim government as they negotiated without him.



The unprecedented gathering saw the Taliban outline their vision for Afghanistan -- including rules around women and the adoption of an Islamic constitution -- before heavyweights, including former president Hamid Karzai, in televised talks.

The Taliban lead prayers and dined with the leaders -- some sworn enemies -- before sitting down for their most significant engagement with Afghan politicians in recent memory.

The roundtable, which saw women defend their rights, comes a week after the insurgents held talks with US negotiators in Doha about ending the 17-year war.

The Doha and Moscow talks, though entirely separate, both excluded the government in Kabul, where Ghani has expressed anger at being increasingly sidelined from key peace negotiations.

The meeting in Russia is "nothing more than a fantasy. No one can decide without the consent of the Afghan people," Ghani told Afghan broadcaster TOLOnews late Tuesday.

"Those who have gathered in Moscow have no executive authority. They can say what they want."

But many of his chief opponents -- including some contesting presidential elections in July -- were present in the Russian capital, and some called for the formation of an interim government to include the Taliban.

"The interim government should also pave the way for a transparent election," Atta Muhammad Noor, an influential former warlord, said on Twitter.

It could act as a transition "through this fragile and messy situation" and convince the insurgents to take part in the political process, he added.

The conference, hosted by an Afghan diaspora group, was welcomed as "useful" by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in a statement.

The Taliban, who ruled Afghanistan under interpretation of Sharia law between 1996 and 2001, said they did not want a "monopoly of power" but "an inclusive Islamic system".

But they have refused thus far to engage with Ghani despite his offers for talks, calling his administration a US puppet.

"There´s something surreal about Afghanistan´s most powerful opposition politicians meeting with the Taliban in order to spark an intra-Afghan dialogue that doesn´t include the country´s own government," analyst Michael Kugelman of the Wilson Center in Washington told AFP.

Karzai, a US-appointed president who led Afghanistan from 2001 until 2014, described the talks as "very, very satisfactory".

"We understand that the government needs to be part of these negotiations. We wish they could have been here today," he told reporters in Moscow.

Ghani´s allies in Washington insist Afghans should lead the peace process, and the months-long push by Washington to engage the Taliban has ostensibly been aimed at convincing them to negotiate with Kabul.

He has repeatedly said that all Afghans should agree to end hostilities but that he would not "surrender to a temporary peace deal".

In extraordinary scenes, the Taliban listened as women addressed the Moscow roundtable -- an unthinkable prospect under their regime, which was toppled by US-led forces in 2001.

The insurgents indicated they could loosen some guidelines around women -- in line with Sharia law -- extending even to female representation in parliament.

Fawzia Koofi, one of two women invited to Moscow, said the Islamist militants would "have to adapt to a modern Afghanistan".

"When they were in power, they would not even let women leave their homes," Koofi, the head of Afghanistan´s parliamentary Committee on Women and Human Rights, told AFP.

"But now we´re hearing women could be prime minister or a minister. It´s a change I think. It´s a positive step but not enough."

But the group stopped short of agreeing to a female president, she added.

Under their rule, the Taliban severely curtailed women´s liberties, barring them from work and school, and confined women to their homes -- only allowing them outside with a male escort and hidden beneath a burqa.

The Taliban also elaborated on their vision for Afghanistan, including the replacement of the constitution with one crafted by Islamic scholars.

"The Kabul government constitution is invalid. It has been imported from the West and is an obstacle to peace," said Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, who headed the Taliban delegation.

Jarring images of Karzai and other leaders joining Taliban officials in prayer and breaking bread in Russia sparked some anger back home.

"If you guys can eat together, laugh and pray together, hug each other why you are still killing innocent Afghans?" one Facebook user posted.

The two-day Moscow talks conclude Wednesday. The Taliban are scheduled to hold a separate, second round of peace talks with the US in Doha on February 25.</s>The Taliban has killed 26 people in an attack on an army base in Afghanistan on the day it began peace talks with opposition leaders in Moscow.

The insurgent group, which had killed a further 21 people on Monday, has described talks held with the US in Qatar last month as a success, according to the Interfax news agency.

But US general Joseph Votel said discussions were still in the "very, very early" stages.

The Taliban stormed the army base on the outskirts of Kunduz city at around 2am local time on Tuesday, head of the provincial council Mohammad Yusouf Ayubi said.

Among those killed were at least 23 soldiers and three members of the local police force.

Another 21 people were killed, including 11 policemen, in two attacks on Monday.

One happened when militants stormed a checkpoint in Baghlani Markazi district in the country's northeast, triggering a firefight that lasted for almost two hours, provincial council head Safder Mohsini said.

The Taliban also targeted a pro-government militia in a village in northern Samangan province, killing 10 people there including a woman, a local spokesman said.

The latest talks, at the President Hotel in Moscow, are set to last two days.

Taliban representatives will negotiate with former president Hamid Karzai, opposition leaders and tribal elders, but not the Afghan government.

The Taliban has refused to engage with President Ashraf Ghani's administration, describing it as a US puppet.

But General Votel, who is head of the US military's central command, told a Senate hearing: "We clearly recognise that they (the Afghan government) have to be a part of this solution and must be in the negotiation aspects of this - we can't do that on their behalf."

Last week, the US and the Taliban reached "agreements in principle" on a peace deal - igniting hopes of ending more than 17 years of war in Afghanistan.
The Taliban kill over 40 people in three separate attacks while Afghan-Taliban peace talks are taking place in Moscow. 12 others were injured.