Afghanistan

KABUL – Forces with the U.S.-backed coalition killed a regional Taliban commander and eight others in an airstrike in western Afghanistan, the U.S. said Monday. The Sunday night attack destroyed the building housing Ghulam Dastagir and eight other militants in the village of Darya-ye-Morghab, near the Turkmenistan border, the U.S. …

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Afghan President Hamid Karzai lashed out at mounting U.S. criticism on Sunday, saying he expected “better judgment” from the Obama administration. In the latest show of strain between the allies in a seven-year war against Islamist militants, Karzai told CNN President Barack Obama‘s description of the Kabul …

Feb. 14 (Bloomberg) — Iran is helping Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan, said General David Petraeus, who is in charge of U.S. forces in the Central Asian nation and Iraq. “There is a willingness to provide some degree of assistance to make the life of those who are trying to help …

KABUL (AFP) – US President Barack Obama has accepted Kabul’s request to be part of a major review of US strategy in the “war on terror” in Afghanistan, President Hamid Karzai and a US envoy said Sunday. Karzai said he asked Obama by letter for Afghanistan to have a role …

ALI MARDAN, Afghanistan, Feb 14 (Reuters) – The foreign warplanes swooped in just as the Afghan village of Ali Mardan was celebrating a wedding. Bombs slammed into the crowded village square, killing 30 men, women and children. After the smoke cleared and the dead were buried, all the able-bodied men …

MOSCOW – Twenty years after Red Army troops pulled out of Afghanistan, the last general to command them says the Soviets‘ devastating experience is a dismal omen for U.S. plans to build up troops there. On Friday, the anniversary of the Soviet departure from the Afghan capital, the Russian parliament’s …

KABUL (Reuters) – U.S. President Barack Obama’s new envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan met key ministers in the Afghan capital on Friday, two days after triple Taliban attacks in the city demonstrated just how much security is deteriorating. Wednesday’s attacks on government buildings show how hard it is for the …

A team of Pentagon investigators will travel to Afghanistan next month to determine whether the U.S. is doing enough to train and equip local security forces. The Defense Department Inspector General’s office also plans by April to expand its staff permanently stationed in Afghanistan, Iraq, Kuwait and Qatar, said Thomas …

The new US envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, has arrived in Kabul on what is being described as a fact-finding mission. He is to meet senior Afghan officials to discuss issues including the worsening security situation. On Wednesday, co-ordinated Taleban attacks in the Afghan capital killed at least …

US President Barack Obama’s envoy to Afghanistan has said that winning the conflict there will be “much tougher” than in Iraq. Richard Holbrooke told a conference in Munich: “I have never seen anything like the mess we have inherited.” Nato defence ministers at the security conference differed on whether the …