WASHINGTON (AFP) — Washington has dismissed an assertion by fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar that the United States has been “defeated” in Afghanistan.

KABUL, Feb 10: Afghanistan said on Sunday it backed a senior US official’s assertion that Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and Taliban chief Mullah Mohammad Omar were operating from Pakistan.

MUNICH, Germany (AFP) — US Defence Secretary Robert Gates has warned that the failure of the international force in Afghanistan would increase the security threat to Europe.

MUNICH, Germany — The Bush administration is rolling out a diplomatic offensive aimed at persuading Europeans that failure in Afghanistan poses a direct risk to their security.

WASHINGTON – A classified Pentagon assessment concludes that long battlefield tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, along with persistent terrorist activity and other threats, have prevented the U.S. military from improving its ability to respond to any new crisis, The Associated Press has learned.

KABUL, Afghanistan — With criticism of the war in Afghanistan increasing on both sides of the Atlantic, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Wednesday that European governments needed to convince their people that sending troops to Afghanistan — and keeping them there — should remain a priority for NATO.

OTTAWA  — Canadian troops fired more than 4.7 million bullets at insurgents over the last 20 months in Afghanistan, according to new statistics released by the military.

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and the top U.S. commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan yesterday issued a blunt assessment of the alliance’s shortcomings in that country, arguing that the unwillingness of some member states to risk combat casualties is threatening NATO’s future and undermining the prosecution of the Afghan …

Introduction   Expert opinion varies wildly on the relevance of U.S. war spending in Iraq and Afghanistan to the health of the U.S. economy. At the most basic level, economists disagree whether these wars will have a positive or negative long-term economic impact. Total military spending (including spending on support …

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was to fly to London Tuesday to discuss the stakes in Afghanistan as the United States and Britain pressed their allies to do more to crush a resurgent Taliban.