Kandahar

A former journalist in the city of Kandahar told the BBC that an open arms market existed there for a year after the Taliban takeover, but has since gone underground via the messaging service ������sApp.

Every year on the anniversary of the deaths of a few of his fallen colleagues in Kandahar, Afghanistan, Kuhlman said he pens a handwritten note to their families.

He helped beat back the Taliban in the crucial battlefield of Kandahar, even as the insurgents advanced across Afghanistan.

Separately on Monday, a hand grenade exploded in the southern city of Kandahar, killing at least one civilian and wounding three, the Kandahar police chief’s office said.

In March, the group said one of its suicide bombers detonated an explosive belt among Taliban gathered near a Kandahar bank to receive their salaries.