At least seven policemen were killed in an IED explosion in the Almar district of Faryab province, police said in a statement on Tuesday.

New Zealand has announced that the country will conclude its military mission in Afghanistan by May 2021. New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta, and Defense Minister Peeni Henare announced Wednesday morning that the country will conclude “its deployment of the New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) to Afghanistan by May 2021.”

Unusually intense fighting in the winter by Taliban insurgents has spurred Afghan government preparations for more violence in the warmer spring, which international players fear will further endanger the nation’s fragile peace process, Reuters reported.

Russian Special Envoy for Afghanistan Zamir Kabulov said on Wednesday that Moscow would like all parties to the conflict in Afghanistan to agree to an inclusive and transitional coalition government.

At least seven members of the public uprising forces were killed and four more were wounded in a Taliban attack on their outpost in the northern province of Kunduz on Sunday night, provincial council member Khaluddin Hakimi said.

At least 11 workers at the Pashdan Dam in Karokh district of Herat were abducted by the Taliban on Sunday, said Wakil Ahmad Karokhi, a provincial council member.

Five policemen were killed and three more were wounded in separate incidents in Zabul and Uruzgan provinces on Sunday night, local officials said.

A hashtag has turned up on social media calling for the withdrawal of foreign forces from Afghanistan: #get_out_of_Afghanistan. There have been several thousand tweets and retweets with this hashtag over the past few days.

Abdullah Abdullah, head of the High Council for National Reconciliation, on Monday reacted to remarks by Hizb-e-Islami leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, calling them “the language of threat and insult,” saying such talk “doesn’t work” in Afghanistan and it is not what the people expect from their political leaders.

Two days ahead of the NATO ministerial, the Afghan government expects the continued support of the alliance to Afghanistan in its train, advice and assist mission. The NATO meeting has been called an important event where allies are expected to decide on the presence of international troops in Afghanistan.