Afghanistan

By the Bush administration’s standards, Defense Secretary Robert Gates was remarkably candid last week: acknowledging that popular opposition in Europe to the Iraq war was making it harder to persuade European governments to send more troops or take more risks to salvage Afghanistan.

Kabul: Tariq Azizuddin, Pakistan’s ambassador to Afghanistan, has been reported missing, senior Afghan officials confirmed on Monday amid speculation that he had been kidnapped. 

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.

OTTAWA – Canada said on Friday it plans to keep its 2,500-strong military mission in Afghanistan until the end of 2011, almost three years longer than initially scheduled, and wants to shift the focus to training Afghan forces.

GHAZNI, Afghanistan – A suicide car bomber targeting an army convoy killed three people on Friday in Afghanistan, witnesses said.

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.