South Asia

The Afghan militant group that sheltered Osama bin Laden before the Sept. 11 attacks is closing the door to the Islamic State.

The Taliban is giving up on holding talks with the group and will prevent it from gaining a foothold in Afghanistan, spokesman Zabihullah Mujahed said by e-mail. He accused the media and intelligence agencies of inflating the Islamic State’s strength.

As a bloody offensive by the Taliban spreads in Afghanistan and with American combat operations there officially ended, anxious Chinese leaders find themselves under pressure to take a more active role in the long-stalled peace process, according to scholars and current and former diplomats.

Going forward, India needs to take an active and collaborative role to position itself as an agenda setter.

Remember Afghanistan? From 2006 to 2011, while Canadian troops in Kandahar were fighting Taliban insurgents, Afghanistan dominated debate about Canadian foreign and defence policy. In the years since, the political and security problems of the troubled Central Asian crossroads have mattered less directly to Canadians.

Taliban would not be able to mount attacks inside Afghanistan without the presence of their undisturbed sanctuaries inside Pakistan, top American experts have said.

"This (Taliban) offensive is enabled by sanctuaries in Pakistan," David Sedney, who earlier was a top Pentagon official for Afghanistan and Pakistan told the PBS in an interview released Sunday.

He's currently a senior associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.