Afghanistan News Archives

Two Tunisians who had been detained at Guantanamo arrived in Italy late Monday and will be tried on international terrorism charges for having allegedly recruited fighters for Afghanistan, officials said.

Pakistani security forces targeted militants fleeing a major army offensive close to the Afghan border Monday, killing 10 of them, an army officer said.

The United Nations asked Monday for $7.1 billion to pay for its humanitarian work around the world next year, with Sudan and its troubled Darfur region most in need and Afghanistan rising to second.

In his letter to Zardari, President Obama has warned Pak that its use of insurgent groups for policy goals 'cannot continue'. In a stern message to Pakistan, the United States has asked it to shed its policy of "using insurgents" like LeT as a strategic tool and warned that if it cannot deliver against terrorists, the US may be impelled to use "any ...

Prime Minister Stephen Harper assured Canada's military Sunday that he and most Canadians stand behind them, even if his political opposition does not.

International forces will begin a lengthy process of withdrawing from Afghanistan by the end of 2010 under a detailed roadmap to be agreed at an international conference here January, according to a report Sunday.

About 30 Taliban insurgents were killed in a NATO-led air strike in eastern Afghanistan after they attacked an Afghan police post, a police official and the alliance said on Sunday.

Postpone the health care overhaul until next year so Congress can concentrate on how to pay for President Barack Obama's expected plans for expanding military operations in Afghanistan, a leading Republican senator said Sunday.

Officials say 26 militants were killed in a gun battle with border security guards in eastern Afghanistan along the Pakistan frontier.

When the improvised bomb exploded in a mud-walled compound about 300 yards from a new traffic checkpoint, the six Afghan police officers at the post just looked at one another.

THE first woman in the Royal Navy to be awarded the Military Cross said that collecting her bravery medal at Buckingham Palace was "the proudest day of my life". Medical assistant Kate Nesbitt braved Taliban fire to tend to a comrade shot in the neck during a gun battle on her first tour of Afghanistan in March.

In this Thursday Nov. 19, 2009, photo Sgt. Michael McCann from Enterprise. Ala., of the 118th Airborne MP Company, a veteran of both Iraq and Afghanistan wars, watches as a driver is stopped at a checkpoint near the town of Balisal Afghan, Logar province, Afghanistan.

Pakistan's embattled president has relinquished command of the country's nuclear arsenal amid political wrangling that has posed a major distraction to the U.S.-allied government as it fights Taliban and other militants near the Afghan border.

A dozen prisoners escaped jail through a tunnel they dug from their cell to the outside in western Afghanistan, police said Saturday.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown is to meet United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon for discussions on plans to pave the way for transferring security responsibilities in Afghanistan to home-grown military forces.

The Conservative government now says it was aware of "concerns about the state of prisons" in Afghanistan almost from the day it took office and eventually rewrote a prisoner transfer agreement as those concerns mounted.

The medical assistant braved Taliban fire to tend to a comrade shot in the neck during a gun battle in Afghanistan in March.

A key anti-Taliban tribal leader was assassinated Friday in a roadside bombing, the latest in a series of attacks against pro-government militias in the Afghan border area of northwestern Pakistan.

"They become your family and being able to eat together like this, to break bread together is a highlight," said 1st Sgt.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai called on the Taliban and other extremist groups Friday to lay down their weapons and participate in rebuilding the battered country, as part of reconciliation efforts he has said will be his main objective during his second term.

"WASHINGTON a ' The United States is scrambling to coax NATO allies to send 10,000 additional troops to Afghanistan as part of President Obama a TMs strategy for the region.

Pakistan has warned the US that sending more soldiers to Afghanistan could endanger its southwest border region.

Five-year-old Kamila Gul should not have survived the landmine blast that slammed shrapnel into her tiny body, most of it to her skull.

Former chief of defence staff Rick Hillier testifies at a House of Commons committee on Wednesday about the Afghan detainee controversy.

The German defence minister, Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, tol the Berlin parliament that Gen Schneiderhan had been relieved of his duties for not explaining to his superiors the circumstances of exactly what happened in the Sept 4 incident.

Two U.S. paratroopers were killed and five others wounded, all from the same company, in a pair of unrelated bomb blasts Sunday.

A former head of MI6 has launched an attack on the Government for its financing and handling of the military campaign in Afghanistan.

A Pakistani court indicted seven Pakistani suspects on terror charges on Wednesday in connection with last year's attack on the Indian city of Mumbai, a defense lawyer said.

As President Obama gets ready to unveil a new strategy to fight the Taliban in Afghanistan, the United States military in the eastern province of Khost is already trying a different approach that relies on local anti-Taliban sentiment, Fox News reported Wednesday.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper moved Tuesday to calm the political storm surrounding the handover of Afghan prisoners.

A battered taxi sped up a dusty road toward a squad of Afghan soldiers searching for bombs planted in the dirt.

The widow of a bomb disposal expert killed in Afghanistan paid a powerful tribute to her "warrior" husband at his funeral.

Attorney general's office says special court being set up to hear cases against three current and 12 former ministers Associated Press in Kabul guardian.co.uk , Tuesday 24 November 2009 16.15 GMT Hamid Karzai pledged a crackdown on corrupton with government during his inaugural speech for a second term as president.

The US is handing out millions of dollars in development money to provinces in Afghanistan that have eliminated or reduced the production of opium poppies.

Pakistan's army fought Islamist militants for control of a northwestern district on Monday, killing 18 of them in an escalating campaign against insurgents intent on toppling the U.S.-allied government.

Afghans await a food giveaway sponsored by a Canadian Army Provincial Reconstruction team.

Afghan government plans to massively boost army and police numbers have been greeted with scepticism by diplomats and military experts who say the figures are too ambitious.

Children in Afghanistan are suffering from serious child abuse and high levels of mortality.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Sunday it was not clear if Pakistan's president was in control of the army and said Pakistan's objectives in Afghanistan were not necessarily those of the United States.

An Algerian court on Sunday acquitted two former detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, who were returned home to face charges of links to terrorism, their defense lawyer said.

KHAR, Pakistan a " Pakistani troops killed nearly 40 suspected militants Sunday in a series of operations in northwestern tribal areas near the Afghan border, officials said.The army launched an offensive against the Taliban in South Waziristan in mid-October, but many militants fled north to escape the fighting.

Canadian soldiers are pushing deeper into insurgent-controlled areas southwest of Kandahar city as their commander awaits an expected NATO request that Canada take on greater responsibilities.

ACHIN, Afghanistan a ' American and Afghan officials have begun helping a number of anti-Taliban militias that have independently taken up arms against insurgents in several parts of Afghanistan, prompting hopes of a large-scale tribal rebellion against the Taliban.

Despite fierce public pressure to end the war in Afghanistan eight years on, politicians and experts on Saturday decried calls for setting an exit date they say would embolden the Taliban.

Khalid Khan stares through the dusty window pane, down across the rooftops of the capital, and wonders if they really know where he lives.

A town centre came to a standstill as thousands of people lined the streets to pay their respects to two soldiers killed in Afghanistan.

A rocket hit outside the luxury Serena Hotel in Afghanistan's capital late Saturday, wounding two people, the Interior Ministry said.

Is there any way to get around Afghan President Hamid Karzai? This question dominates the U.S. debate as President Obama prepares to announce his long-delayed Afghan strategy.

Defence Minister Peter MacKay says the Conservatives will not try to remove Richard Colvin from his post in Washington.

Underpaid, under-equipped and under-trained, Afghanistan's 93,000-member police force is the weak link in an ambitious security strategy to hand over defense of the country to Afghans so American and other foreign troops can go home.

Afghan police say Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, a parliamentarian and powerful former warlord, has narrowly escaped an assassination attempt near Kabul.

Houston News.Net Friday 20th November, 2009 Afghan Taliban chief Mullah Omar has shifted his base from Quetta to Karachi with the help of Pakistana s Inter Services Intelligence, the Washington Times reports.

President Barack Obama will have scant time to rest up from his eight-day Asia trip.

Faced with an escalating insurgency, Pakistan increasingly views U.S. efforts to stabilize neighboring Afghanistan as critical to its own security - but is worried enough about the chances of American failure that it continues to hedge its bets.

November 19, 2009 Visionmp.com news service Foreign Minister SM Krishna and his Pakistani counterpart Shah Mehmood Qureshi attended a luncheon hosted by Afghan Foreign Minister Rangin Dadfar Spanta in Kabul on Thursday.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai, battling to rebuild a tarnished reputation, was sworn into office for a second term on Thursday as he faces renewed criticism from Washington over corruption.

Canadian troops in Afghanistan are reporting to a new general today. Brig. Gen. Daniel Menard took over command of Task Force Kandahar from Brig.

Richard Colvin, a former senior diplomat with Canada's mission in Afghanistan, appears before a House of Commons committee Wednesday in Ottawa.

A British soldier was killed in Afghanistan on Wednesday, the Ministry of Defence has said.

Nov 18 - Over a thousand women from the Jamaat-e-Islami party march through the streets of Islamabad to condemn American policies in Pakistan.

The soldier son of Britain's biggest lottery winner is preparing to fight in Afghanistan, it has been reported.

Soldiers patrol towns once ruled by militants who gave refuge to al-Qaida . Left behind are bundles of terror manuals, extremist propaganda and boxes of ammunition and explosives.

Marines and sailors from the 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment are expected home Tuesday after about nine months in Afghanistan.

Afghanistan and Iraq, countries that receive billions of dollars a year in international support, are among the world's most corrupt nations, a watchdog group said in a report released Tuesday.

Allied troops must stay in Afghanistan to prevent the Taliban filling any "vacuum", the Foreign Secretary has said.

A pickup truck laden with explosives blew up outside a police station in northwestern Pakistan on Monday, killing four people in an area that has become the focal point for militant retaliation against an army offensive along the nearby Afghan border.

Gordon Brown is expected to issue a vigorous defence of Britain's military mission in Afghanistan, as he repeats warnings that the al Qaida terror network poses the biggest source of threat to UK national security.

Insurgents fired two rockets Monday into a crowded market northeast of Kabul where the head of French forces in Afghanistan was holding a meeting with tribal elders.

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Reporting from Washington - The CIA has funneled hundreds of millions of dollars to Pakistan's intelligence service since the Sept.

In courtrooms barred to the public, dozens of terror suspects are pleading for their freedom from the Guantanamo Bay prison, sometimes even testifying on their own behalf by video from the U.S. naval base in Cuba.

Two C-27 military support planes have been delivered to the Afghan National Army Air Corps - a small step on the road to helping Afghanistan's security forces develop a modern aerial fleet.

As soon as the French Foreign Legion moved in this summer, some of the men climbed on the roof of the base headquarters and painted the force's Latin motto in big white letters.

Published: Saturday, November 14, 2009 at 9:59 p.m. Last Modified: Saturday, November 14, 2009 at 9:59 p.m. While President Barack Obama's decision about sending more troops to Afghanistan is primarily a military one, it also has substantial budget implications that are adding pressure to limit the commitment, senior administration officials say.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has promised reforms to root out corruption that has undermined trust in his administration.

Kandahar: Hundreds of Taliban insurgents demanding better prison conditions in Afghanistan yesterday ended a five-day hunger strike, a parliamentarian and a prisoner said.

Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has said the country's focus on the war on terror is being affected because of persistent tensions with India.

Gov. Haley Barbour visited with Mississippi National Guard troops on the ground at forward operating bases in Afghanistan today after discussions on Thursday with the U.S. ambassador and military commanders in Kabul, the country's capital city.

The Army's tank-like LAV armoured vehicles will go to a war zone for the first time since the Labour Government spent $672 million on the fleet almost five years ago.

A woman wearing a burqa walks past U.S. army soldiers after a suicide bomb detonated near Camp Phoenix, a logistics support base for U.S. forces just outside Kabul, Afghanistan, Friday Nov.

Ten high-profile Guantanamo Bay detainees are being transferred to face justice in the United States.

The big story here, underreported so far, is the emergence of coordinated American and Afghan efforts to bring Taliban leaders and fighters in from the cold.

A suicide bomb blast struck near a US military base in the Afghan capital on Friday, officials said.

Gunmen killed a Pakistani working at the Iranian Consulate in the northwestern city of Peshawar on Thursday, adding to security fears in the country as it presses an offensive against the Taliban along the nearby Afghan border.

A Norwegian freelance journalist kidnapped a week ago in eastern Afghanistan was released Thursday along with his Afghan interpreter, the Foreign Ministry said.

It's the end of the world as we know it, and Hollywood feels fine. Global warming, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, continuing terrorist threats and the economic meltdown have people in a gloomy, even end-of-days frame of mind.

A bomb-sniffing dog that disappeared during a fierce battle in Afghanistan between Australian troops and militant fighters has been found and returned to its unit after more than a year.

Now they are back in positions of power, in part because the U.S. relied on them in 2001 to help oust the Taliban after the Sept.

President Barack Obama again convened his war council on Wednesday for talks considered critical to his deliberations on boosting troop levels in the increasingly unpopular war in Afghanistan.

British soldiers serving in Afghanistan have commemorated Armistice Day with a two-minute silence.

A rare celebration of life Soldiers stand at attention during Remembrance Day ceremonies in Kandahar, Afghanistan on Wednesday, Nov.

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Canadian soldiers will be offering the H1N1 vaccine to Afghan detainees in their custody.

Lahore, Nov.10 : Wanted Afghan warlord and Hizb-e-Islami chief Gulbudin Hekmatyar has said that Al-Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden is still alive.

A suspected car bomb exploded outside a crowded market in northwest Pakistan on Tuesday, killing 20 people in the latest attack by suspected militants apparently aimed at avenging an army offensive along the Afghan border.

Gordon Brown is braced for more pressure over the bloody conflict in Afghanistan.

NATO says Afghan and foreign troops have killed more than 130 insurgents, including eight Taliban commanders, in six days of fierce fighting during a major offensive in northern Afghanistan.

A suicide bomber in a rickshaw detonated his explosives near a group of policemen in northwest Pakistan's main city of Peshawar, killing three people Monday, police said.

The United States and Germany stepped up pressure on Afghan President Hamid Karzai Monday to implement major reforms and crack down on rampant corruption.

In this file photo, Taliban militants pray behind their guns during a ceremony in Herat, east Afghanistan, Wednesday, Aug.

WASHINGTON: Former Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf has alleged that Afghanistan is under influence of Indian intelligence agencies even as he admitted that there is "an ingress of the ISI in every terrorist group"."Afghan intelligence, Afghan President, Afghan Government.

An additional 15,800 troops are needed to properly secure Kandahar so that reconstruction efforts and training of the Afghan army can continue, says a conservative U.S. think-tank. A presentation by the American Enterprise Institute, widely circulated among western allies, painted a detailed, bleak picture of the American or NATO resources military ...

As Pakistan's army plows ahead with its offensive in South Waziristan, its success is at risk because the government has yet to come up with a plan to run and rebuild the lawless territory so that the Taliban and al-Qaida don't re-emerge. The Pakistani army launched a ground offensive in the Afghan border region in mid-October, pitting some 30,000 ...

In this Jan. 21, 2008 file photo, Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir seen during a news conference with his Turkish counterpart Abdullah Gul, not pictured, in Ankara, Turkey.Turkey should arrest Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir if he visits Istanbul because of an international warrant against him for atrocities in Darfur, human rights groups said ...

An Afghan police official says at least two private security guards have been wounded and two fuel tankers set on fire in eastern Afghanistan when militants attacked a supply convoy for NATO forces.

There are few songs as mournful and haunting as Taps played for a fallen warrior, and on an isolated combat outpost in southern Afghanistan it has been sounded for David Baker, a 22-year-old Marine lance corporal who was just six weeks short of going home when he was killed in an explosion.

Maintaining public support is "crucially important" to the success of the international military mission in Afghanistan, the senior British commander in the country has warned.

The killing of five British soldiers by an Afghan policeman must not prevent co-operation between the two nations, the commander of British forces in Afghanistan said.

The casket of Lt. Justin Boyes is taken into church for funeral services in Saskatoon.

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband on Saturday accused critics of U.S. President Barack Obama of foolishly expecting him to fix the world's woes singlehandedly.

For NATO combat troops, Iraq and Afghanistan differ in several important ways. For one thing, nearly all the fighting is out in the countryside.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon Friday denied the international body is pulling out of Afghanistan.

Investigators on Friday searched for the motive behind a mass shooting at a sprawling U.S. army base in Texas, in which an army psychiatrist trained to treat war wounded is suspected of killing 13 people.

Canada's top police officer in Afghanistan says more needs to be done to bring the Afghan National Police force up to par.

Germany's defense minister said Friday he believes civilians were killed in an airstrike in Afghanistan, but insisted that the German-requested attack was necessary from a military standpoint.

Gunmen on a motorcycle wounded a senior army officer and soldier in the Pakistani capital Friday, the third such attack in about two weeks as militants retaliate against a new military offensive along the Afghan border.

President Barack Obama's next move on Afghanistan is growing more difficult by the day.

Editor's note: Reuters journalist Deborah Gembara was embedded with the 1-501rst Infantry Battallion in Kushamond, Afghanistan.

A US soldier serving with NATO has been killed in an attack in eastern Afghanistan, the force said on Thursday, as President Hamid Karzai ordered a probe into the deaths of nine civilians in a rocket attack.

The funeral of a British soldier who died weeks after being wounded in Afghanistan is due to take place.

An overnight air strike by international forces killed nine civilians, including at least three children, villagers said Thursday.

AUSTRALIA appears to be baulking at sending any more troops to fight in Afghanistan.

The villagers said they just wanted to be left alone. They claimed they had asked the Taliban to stay away, and wished the Americans would do the same.

Afghan opium production is on the rise, helping to fund the Taliban and other terror groups and having a devastating impact across the world, experts say.

Niamatullah joined the Afghan National Police for the same reasons that many Afghan men do.

Pakistani soldiers battled Taliban fighters Wednesday in the streets of a key militant stronghold, officials said, as government forces pressed ahead with their offensive in the tribal region of South Waziristan.

A plane carrying the body of the latest Canadian soldier to die in Afghanistan arrived at CFB Trenton, in eastern Ontario, this afternoon.

Newly released White House tapes from the Vietnam War era portray President John F. Kennedy wrestling over the fate of South Vietnam's strongman in a situation that appears to mirror President Barack Obama's quandary today in dealing with Afghanistan's shaky government.Obama is beset by questions about President Hamid Karzai's popularity, honesty ...

Nov 3 - The re-elected Afghan President Hamid Karzai vows to root out corruption following stern warnings from Western supporters on the issue.

Although mostly embedded with coalition troops, he has also covered the presidential elections, bodybuilders in Kabul, the state of Afghan prisons and daily life in the country.

The US government has no precise figure for how many contractors are employed in Iraq and Afghanistan, inviting the risk of fraud and security threats, a US commission warned on Monday.

A firefight in involving New Zealand troops won't affect the Government's commitment to international forces there, Prime Minister John Key says.

A senior British explosives expert has been killed while trying to defuse a bomb on the last day of his tour in Afghanistan.

LAHORE: US President Barrack Obama has decided to initiate a dialogue process with the Afghan Taliban and has requested Pakistan and Saudi Arabia to help initiate the talks, a private TV channel reported on Sunday.

Tariq, an internally displaced boy fleeing a military offensive in South Waziristan, waits for handouts outside a distribution point for internally displaced persons in Dera Ismail Khan Pakistani forces are zeroing in on two major Taliban bases in South Waziristan region as their offensive pushes deeper into militant bastion on the Afghan border, ...

Seen from a tiny village on a recent moonless night, the sprawling U.S. base three miles to the north looks more like a medium-size city than a military facility in a war zone.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton ,right, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu react during a press conference in Jerusalem.

President Barack Obama is unlikely to make a decision on his Afghanistan strategy and sending thousands more troops there before he embarks on his trip to Asia on November 11, a senior administration official said on Saturday.

A British soldier has been killed in an explosion near Sangin in central Helmand Province, Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence said.

How's that golf game going? Maybe you should give Bush a call on how to run a war.