An Afghan official says that Pir Sayed Ahmed Gailani, chief of Afghanistan's High Peace Council, tasked with negotiating an end to the country's protracted conflict, has died at age 84. Mohammed Karim Khalili, deputy head of the council, told The Associated Press that Gailani died in Kabul earlier Friday. The war ended with the Soviet withdrawal in 1989. Three years later Afghanistan's pro-Moscow government collapsed and the resistance leaders took power. Gailani had been a strong proponent of peace talks with the Taliban.

Source: ABC News January 21, 2017 17:07 UTC