Afghanistan

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani condemned Western countries for deciding to engage in backdoor talks with Taliban leaders.

KABUL (Reuters) – The U.S. military is to provide the Afghan army with armored vehicles and NATO standard weapons in an attempt to boost the capability of the fledgling force, the U.S. military said on Wednesday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – An inquiry by the U.S. military has concluded that U.S. air strikes on an Afghan village in August killed more than 30 civilians, far more than U.S. commanders have acknowledged, The New York Times said on Tuesday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States has asked Japan and NATO allies who have refused to send troops to Afghanistan to pay the estimated $17 billion needed to build up the Afghan army, according to U.S. defense officials.

KABUL (Reuters) – The war in Afghanistan cannot be won militarily and success is only possible through political means including dialogue between all relevant parties, the United Nation’s top official in the country said on Monday.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – NATO’s top operations commander hit out Monday at allies resisting his call for the alliance to use more aggressive tactics against Afghan drug production.

KHAR, Pakistan (Reuters) – Pakistani authorities have begun expelling Afghan refugees from a tribal region that has become the main battleground between troops and fighters linked to the Taliban and al Qaeda, officials said on Monday.

KABUL (Reuters) – Afghanistan began registering voters on Monday for elections due next year that will test support for President Hamid Karzai and democracy itself which is threatened by a virulent Taliban insurgency in which thousands have died.

LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s commander in Afghanistan has said the war against the Taliban cannot be won, the Sunday Times reported.

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – NATO launched an airstrike near the Afghan border with Pakistan on Friday, but there was no intrusion into Pakistani territory, a Pakistani military spokesman said, contradicting accounts by intelligence officials in the region.