Elite Afghan troops battled Sunday to clear Taliban fighters from a highway outside a strategic northern city as residents fled their homes under threat of further violence. – Los Angeles Times
Twelve people, including three children, were killed when Afghan and U.S. forces conducted a raid on the house of a suspected al Qaeda member in east Afghanistan, according to a confidential report and people familiar with the matter. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
With roads to Europe increasingly blocked by strict border controls, Afghans hoping to flee war and economic peril are desperately searching for new escape routes by way of refugee camps in India, airports in Russia and even the beaches of Cuba. – Washington Post
A video posted online in recent days shows what appears to be an Afghan Mi-17 transport helicopter landing and triggering an improvised explosive device somewhere on the ground. Some iterations of the video, posted to YouTube, bear the crest of the Taliban’s media arm, Al-Emera. – Washington Post’s Checkpoint
An unsettling new State Department report warns of potentially fatal electrical currents inside two well-populated buildings at the U.S. embassy complex in Afghanistan. – Military Times
Schools and health facilities have come under increasing threat as violence spreads in Afghanistan, making it harder for children especially to get access to education and medical care, the United Nations reported on Monday. - Reuters