The NATO alliance, which rushed to join the United States in Afghanistan in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, will depart the war-torn country alongside American forces in the months ahead, allies announced Wednesday.

The eight deaths last year bring to 99 the number of American troops who have died while taking part in the U.S.-led coalition battling ISIS since it began a little over six years ago.

Australia would complete its troop withdrawal from Afghanistan in September in line with the United States and other allies, the prime minister said Thursday.

The Biden administration has decided that all U.S. forces will leave Afghanistan by Sept. 11, the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attack that started America’s longest war, a senior administration official said Tuesday.

Critics of Biden’s decision worry if the United States military leaves Afghanistan, the Taliban could quickly rout the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces in key locations and, eventually, return to power in the country.

A group of Democratic House lawmakers said Thursday that they will attempt to limit the Taliban’s ability to regain power in Afghanistan by continuing to have a robust diplomatic presence there and provide economic support.

Miles from the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower as the carrier patrols the Arabian Sea, the USS Laboon had passed through the Strait of Hormuz and into the Persian Gulf to drill alongside the French Navy’s flagship, the carrier FS Charles de Gaulle.

Gen. Austin “Scott” Miller on Friday marked 915 days as head of the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan, making him the longest-serving commander of America’s longest war.

The U.S. decision to withdraw all troops from Afghanistan by September met with fears in the capital that the Taliban will regain control and reverse most of the freedoms Afghans gained.

The Taliban fired an undisclosed number of rockets at Kandahar Airfield on Wednesday, all of which landed outside the perimeter and caused no damage or casualties, the U.S. military said.

After drawing down to 4,500 troops this fall, the number of U.S. forces in the country is expected to be further reduced to 2,500 in January. Some have said that cut, ordered by President Donald Trump this month, could leave a security vacuum.

An Afghan man aided American forces and was slain by the Taliban while waiting for a U.S. visa. But his family is still in Afghanistan and getting threats, lawyers said.

Including Iraqi air force and army aviation operations, a total of 312 airstrikes have destroyed 120 enemy positions and killed 27 terrorists, Col. Wayne Marotto, a spokesman for the military coalition, said in a tweet.

When interpreter Najeeb Aminyar discovered he was eligible for a special visa that would allow him to resettle in the U.S., he applied. The visa process was complex and took 17 months, but he was more fortunate than many others.

analysis

Time is running out for Washington to choose whether to keep to a deal with the Taliban and pull out of Afghanistan by May 1, a defense official and several security analysts said.

Three members of an Iranian separatist group, the Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahwaz, were charged Thursday with financing and promoting terror in Iran with an unnamed Saudi intelligence service.

Some 5,000 U.S. special operators were deployed in about 62 countries as of Thursday, Army Gen. Richard Clarke, the SOCOM commander, told the Senate Armed Services Committee. The deployment total represented about a 15% decrease in forward special operations forces compared with 2020 levels, he said.

Staff Sgt. Ronald J. Ouellette died Sept. 14 when the single all-terrain vehicle in which he was a passenger rolled and pinned him to the ground in a cargo yard near the flight line at Ali Al Salem Air Base.

The Pentagon spent $773 million on helicopter rides for U.S. and coalition personnel and equipment in Afghanistan in the three years starting September 2017, the Defense Department Inspector General said in the March 22 report.

Iran's supreme leader on Wednesday dismissed initial offers at talks in Vienna to save Tehran's tattered nuclear deal as “not worth looking at."

At the center of Kabul, a city of traditional bazaars and tattered shopping malls, horse-drawn carts and crumbling streets thronged with automobile traffic, lies a heavily fortified district that is a mystery to most Afghans.

Sunday marks the longest span between U.S. combat deaths of the nearly 19-year war in Afghanistan, even while fighting continues between the Taliban and U.S.-allied Afghan government forces.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken made an unannounced visit to Afghanistan on Thursday to sell Afghan leaders and a wary public on the decision to withdraw all American troops from the country.

Analysis

There are growing fears that Afghanistan will collapse into worsening chaos, brutal civil war, or even a takeover by the Taliban once the Americans are gone — opening a new chapter in the constant war that has lasted for decades.

At least 10 rockets rained down on Asad Air Base in Anbar province housing U.S. and coalition forces in western Iraq, the Pentagon said.

U.S. Central Command released two minutes of unclassified drone footage Monday that it had provided to the news program showing the attack at al Asad.

An American woman who helped her husband and brother-in-law join the Islamic State in Syria by smuggling cash and gold overseas has been sentenced to 6 ½ years in prison after pleading guilty to financing terrorism.

The soldiers displayed courage under fire, but why had they been in such a desperate situation in the first place? That question lies at the heart of “The Hardest Place: The American Military Adrift in Afghanistan’s Pech Valley.”

Iran began enriching uranium Friday to its highest level ever, edging closer to weapons-grade levels to pressure talks in Vienna aimed at restoring its nuclear deal with world powers after an attack on its main atomic site.

ANALYSIS

Biden has inched so close to the deadline that his indecision amounts almost to a decision to put off, at least for a number of months, a pullout of the remaining 2,500 troops and continue supporting the Afghan military at the risk of a Taliban backlash.

The Iraqi military said the blast in the Habibiya neighborhood of Sadr City, was caused by a car laden with highly explosive materials that blew up while passing through a popular used-furniture market.

A Taliban spokesman said Monday the religious militia won’t attend a peace conference tentatively planned for later this week in Turkey, putting U.S. efforts to get a peace plan anytime soon in jeopardy.

The International Monetary Fund warned Sunday that an uneven vaccine distribution would derail the region's rebound, as the prospects of rich and poor countries diverge.

Senior Airman Jason Khai Phan, who was seated behind the driver, was killed instantly in the Sept. 12, 2020, wreck near the end of a 12-hour security patrol just outside Ali Al Salem Air Base.

About 26,000 doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine are expected to arrive at overseas bases in the next couple of weeks, CENTCOM officials said. The new batch follows a shipment of 20,000 doses that arrived earlier this month.

Most lawmakers agreed Tuesday on a long-term goal of pulling all U.S. civilian and military personnel from Afghanistan, though some remained conflicted on whether to keep troops there.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, the first Biden administration official to visit Israel, said the U.S.-Israel relationship was "enduring and ironclad," amid growing Israeli concern at the American efforts to revive the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal.

Zahi Hawass said that archaeologists found brick houses, artifacts and tools from pharaonic times at the site of the 3,000-year-old lost city.

Young men once flocked to join the Iraqi militias. Now, there's resentment over what they've become and their broken promises.

Iran's Foreign Ministry confirmed that there was an attack on an Iranian ship, suspected to have been carried out by Israel — though Tehran did not immediately blame its regional archenemy.

A former MIT research student married to the younger daughter of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Selcuk Bayraktar has been central to Turkey's emergence as a producer of armed drones.

Soon after the 9/11 attacks, disease researchers at the Department of Veterans Affairs began internal discussions on how to prepare for the war-related illnesses they knew would follow, agency officials told McClatchy.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani will not run in the snap elections he proposed under a peace plan with Taliban militants in a bid to end 20 years of war, according to Hamdullah Mohib, his national security adviser.

The strikes targeted Taliban fighters in the Zharay, Spin Boldak and Kandahar districts of Kandahar province, an official said.

Analysis

The recent sabotage at Iran's main nuclear enrichment facility is just the latest setback for the country's Revolutionary Guard, though the paramilitary force is rarely publicly criticized due to its power.

Egyptian authorities impounded a massive cargo vessel that blocked the Suez Canal last month amid a financial dispute with its owner, the canal chief and a judicial official said Tuesday.

A viral tweet by a former U.S. military adviser in Afghanistan helped a pilot who had been injured in combat get specialized medical treatment that wasn’t available in the country.

A Turkish court sentenced dozens of people, including former soldiers attached to the presidential guard regiment, to life imprisonment on Wednesday over their involvement in the 2016 failed coup attempt against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government.

In confidential interrogation reports, Iraqi detainee M060108-01 is depicted as a model prisoner, "cooperative" with his American captors, and unusually chatty.

The scramble for peace in Afghanistan is fracturing Kabul's political leadership and undermining the U.S.-backed government there ahead of critical negotiations with the Taliban over how much control it will have in the country's future.

For many Muslims, hopes of a better Ramadan than last year have been dashed with the surge in infection rates though regulations vary in different countries.

ANALYSIS

The attack on Iran’s Natanz nuclear facility is casting a major shadow over Tuesday’s resumption of indirect talks between the U.S. and Iran over resurrection of the international accord limiting Iran's nuclear program.

Iran's nuclear program has been targeted by diplomatic efforts and sabotage attacks over the last decade, with the latest incident striking its underground Natanz facility.

Pakistan police Monday arrested the leader of a radical Islamist political party a day after he threatened the government with protests if it did not expel France's ambassador over depictions of Islam's Prophet Muhammad.

Syria has repeatedly been accused of using chemical weapons during the country's grinding civil war. The government of President Bashar Assad denies the claims.

Iran's Natanz nuclear site suffered a problem Sunday involving its electrical distribution grid just hours after starting up new advanced centrifuges that more quickly enrich uranium, state TV reported. It was the latest incident to strike one of Tehran's most-secured sites amid negotiations over the tattered atomic accord with world powers.

The United States and Iraq concluded talks Wednesday on America's troop presence here, issuing a joint statement that emphasized the growing capacity of the Iraqi military.

Jordan's Prince Hamzah on Sunday made his first public appearance since he was placed under house arrest last week, attending a ceremony with King Abdullah II in what appeared to be an attempted show of unity on a major Jordanian holiday.

At least 15 militants, a police officer and an army soldier have been killed so far this month.

The Biden administration has opened the door to lifting Trump-imposed sanctions against Iran that are "inconsistent" with the 2015 nuclear deal, but also those that prevent Iran from accessing broader economic benefits under the agreement.

Iran's coronavirus task force, charged with determining virus restrictions, ordered most shops closed and offices restricted to one-third capacity in cities declared as "red zones."

Iran said Saturday that it has begun mechanical tests on its newest advanced nuclear centrifuge, even as the five world powers that remain in a foundering 2015 nuclear deal with Iran attempt to bring the U.S. back into the agreement.

South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said Iran released the tanker and its captain after seizing the vessel in January.

The aggressive U.S. push for a peace deal has brought the Taliban to an inevitable crossroads. What the Taliban does could signal where the balance of power lies within the movement and what its vision is for Afghanistan's future.

The battle for an ancient desert city in war-torn Yemen has become a key to understanding wider tensions now inflaming the Middle East and the challenges facing any efforts by President Joe Biden's administration to shift U.S. troops out of the region.

Iraq had requested the latest round, partly in response to pressure from Shiite political factions and militias loyal to Iran that have lobbied for the remaining U.S. troops to leave Iraq.

Jordan imposed a sweeping gag order on coverage of its palace feud Tuesday after a recording indicated that authorities tried to silence a former crown prince over his meetings with critics, a sign officials are increasingly nervous about how the rare public rift in the royal family is being perceived.

Iran and the five world powers remaining in a 2015 deal on Iran's nuclear program are set to meet in Vienna.

Rep. Mike Rogers, the top Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, said Monday that he supports keeping U.S. forces in Afghanistan beyond the May 1 withdrawal deadline to help stabilize the country as the White House weighs whether to keep troops on the ground there.

The lost city, known as Aten, is believed to have been founded by King Amenhotep III, the ninth king of ancient Egypt's 18th dynasty who ruled the country from 1391 to 1352 B.C.

Even countries where vaccine rollouts are finally getting some momentum, infections, hospitalizations and deaths are surging. And that leaves even bleaker prospects for much of the world.

Russia's foreign minister on Wednesday said Moscow and Islamabad will boost ties in the fight against terrorism, with Russia providing unspecified military equipment to Pakistan and the two holding joint exercises at sea and in the mountains.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday urged the world not to revive the troubled international nuclear deal with Iran as he opened Israel's annual memorial day for the 6 million Jews who perished in the Holocaust.

ordan's King Abdullah II said on Wednesday that the "discord" that has roiled the kingdom for days has "been stopped."

Talks between U.S. and Syrian officials last summer over the fate of Austin Tice and other American hostages foundered over conditions laid out by Damascus and because of a lack of meaningful information provided on the fate of Tice.

A 33-year-old man from Yemen was stopped on Jan. 29 a few miles from the Calexico Port of Entry, according to a statement from U.S. Customs and Border Protection. A 26-year-old man, also from Yemen, was arrested near the same port of entry on March 30.

Moroccan authorities decided Wednesday to enforce a night-time curfew during the holy month of Ramadan because of a recent rise in COVID-19 cases, as a new, local variant of the virus scientists was discovered.

Coronavirus lockdowns last year shifted some anti-Semitic hatred online, where conspiracy theories blaming Jews for the pandemic's medical and economic devastation abounded, Israeli researchers reported Wednesday.

Officials from five world powers began a new effort Tuesday to try to bring the United States back into the foundering 2015 nuclear deal they signed with Iran.

Jordan's King Abdullah II appeared to be doubling down on the allegations against Prince Hamzah, a former crown prince, while at the same time trying to reassure Jordanians that the nation was returning to business as usual.

Russia’s foreign minister arrived Tuesday in Pakistan for a two-day visit expected to focus on efforts to bring peace to neighboring Afghanistan.

Ten officials have been indicted in Iran over the 2020 military shootdown of a Ukrainian passenger plane that killed 176 people, a prosecutor said Tuesday.

The Sunday attack comes days ahead of a new round of so-called strategic Iraq-U.S. talks on Wednesday.

Of all the millions of tons of cargo that's piled up in the Suez Canal, none is more delicate than the animals crammed into the hulls of several of the ships.

Recent dramatic developments have made public the traditionally private rifts in the Jordanian royal palace between King Abdullah II and his popular half brother.

The U.S. considers Jordan a major ally, granting it access to military equipment and assistance. U.S. special forces and other troops routinely train with the Jordanians. The kingdom hosts some 3,000 American troops.