Afghanistan

A LEADING military analyst with the Ministry of Defence’s own think tank warned that Nato was on the “precipice of failure” in Afghanistan unless it swaps throwing “money and troops” at the country’s problems for a more coherent approach.

MAZAR-I-SHARIF, Afghanistan – Dozens of Afghan journalists and activists on Saturday sought the release of a journalist detained by security officials for allegedly making blasphemous comments.

KABUL – Dozens of people have been killed by heavy snow and freezing weather in recent days in Afghanistan, an official said on Saturday.

WASHINGTON, Jan 10: US Defence Secretary Robert Gates has said he plans to send 3,200 additional troops to Afghanistan by April to deal with an expected Taliban offensive.

BRUSSELS (AFP) — NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer has rejected suggestions that not enough allies are pulling their weight in Afghanistan, as he welcomed US plans to send more troops there.

WASHINGTON – Defense Secretary Robert Gates will consider sending some 3,000 Marines to Afghanistan to thwart any spring offensive by Taliban militants, the Pentagon said on Wednesday.

KABUL – A soldier from the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) was killed and another was wounded on Wednesday in a mine blast in southern Afghanistan, a military statement said.

KABUL (Reuters) – A former senior Taliban commander has been appointed government district chief of the fiefdom he once controlled as an insurgent leader, Afghan officials confirmed on Tuesday.

KABUL, Afghanistan – A roadside bomb killed two soldiers from the U.S.-led coalition in eastern Afghanistan, and a suicide bomber on a motorcycle attacked a border police patrol in the south, killing a policeman, officials said.Clashes and another roadside bomb left nine people dead elsewhere.

WASHINGTON — As the Bush administration struggles for a way to close the military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, a similar effort to scale down a larger and more secretive American detention center in Afghanistan has been troubled by political, legal and security problems, officials say.