Afghanistan

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – Russia, at odds with the United States over Georgia, will press the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday to condemn U.S.-led air strikes in Afghanistan that killed dozens of civilians, diplomats said.

PARIS (Reuters) – French forces will draw lessons from an incident last week in which 10 soldiers were killed in a Taliban ambush but France’s commitment to Afghanistan remains unshaken, ministers said on Tuesday.

KABUL (Reuters) – The Taliban were very clear about their strategy this year, declaring it for all to see on their Web site in March; more suicide bombs, isolating Kabul and hitting troop supply lines. So far they have not disappointed.

JALALABAD, Afghanistan (Reuters) – Afghan police clashed with the kidnappers of a male Japanese aid worker in eastern Nangarhar province on Tuesday, freeing the man’s local driver, a police spokesman said.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Tehran has stepped up efforts to secure the release of two Iranian nationals kidnapped in the western Afghan city of Herat.

KABUL (Reuters) – Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Saturday condemned a U.S-led coalition air strike his government says killed 76 civilians, most of them women and children.

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) – A roadside bomb killed 10 civilians in the southern province of Kandahar on Saturday, the provincial police chief said.

HERAT, Afghanistan (Reuters) – U.S.-led coalition forces killed 30 militants, including a Taliban commander, in an air strike in west Afghanistan, the U.S. military said on Friday, but Afghan officials said there were also civilian casualties.

TEHRAN, Aug. 22 (ISNA)-Afghanistan’s foreign minister Rangin Dadfar Spanta called for campaigning against drug trafficking and terrorism as closely-related issues.

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for twin suicide blasts outside Pakistan’s main defense industry complex on Thursday which killed about 40 people.