Lynne O’Donnell is a journalist and author. She was the Afghanistan bureau chief for Agence France-Presse and the Associated Press between 2009 and 2017.
More than a decade ago, during a tense visit to Islamabad as US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton gave Pakistan’s leaders a warning: ‘You can’t keep snakes in your backyard and expect them only to bite your neighbours.’ She was referring to the Taliban and other militant groups that Islamabad had long tolerated as part
From our UK edition
The futile peace talks taking place between Pakistan and the Taliban over cross-border terrorist attacks have produced at least one revelation: Islamabad has become the Dr Frankenstein of the region. For decades, Pakistan’s generals believed they could manipulate Islamist militants and use them as instruments of their foreign policy. They thought it would be simple
From our UK edition
For more than three years, democratic governments have been trying to pretend that Afghanistan does not exist. The embarrassed silence has given the Taliban drugs and terror cartel a free hand to transform Afghanistan into the world centre of jihad, while locking up women, and robbing western taxpayers of billions of dollars in aid and
From our UK edition
It has been almost three years since the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan. In that time, women have become prisoners in their own homes and targets of violence if they venture outdoors alone. Now, the United Nations is investigating reports of rape, gang rape, sex slavery and forced abortions of women held in Taliban
From our UK edition
When the thousands of international athletes march proudly behind their national flags along the banks of the River Seine in Paris to open the Olympic Games in a few months, the country that usually leads the parade, behind the host, will be absent. Afghanistan, first in the alphabetical order of nations, has been captured by
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In a cosy Persian restaurant in an Islamabad strip mall, a young man approached Asad Ali Toor for a selfie. ‘I watch your show, I admire your work, thank you for what you do,’ he told the journalist. Toor’s real crime is speaking truth to power Days later, Toor was in jail, charged with ‘cyber
From our UK edition
When a massive earthquake struck western Afghanistan on 7 October, thousands of mud houses collapsed, crushing and killing the people inside. Many of them were women, confined indoors by tradition, religion and Taliban edict, and their young children. Over the weeks that followed, Herat province, which borders Iran, has been shaken by three more huge
