Afghanistan

At least 13 people have been killed in a suicide car bombing in Kabul, the Afghan defence ministry has said.The bomber attacked a bus carrying Afghan soldiers during morning rush hour in the south-west of the capital.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The tarnished U.S. human rights image faces a major test this week as the Supreme Court considers whether terrorism suspects held for years without charges at Guantanamo Bay are wrongly detained.

KABUL, Afghanistan – A suicide car bomber targeted a NATO convoy in Kabul on Tuesday, wounding 10 civilians passing nearby, officials said.

KABUL (AFP) – US Secretary of Defence Robert Gates arrived in Afghanistan late Monday for a surprise visit to evaluate international efforts against rising violence led by Taliban rebels allied with Al-Qaeda.

The Afghan ministry of defence has announced plans to treble the size of its army. The ministry said this was to dissuade Afghanistan’s neighbours, Iran and Pakistan, from interfering, as well as to provide better internal security.

KABUL (Reuters) – Afghanistan’s army will reach a targeted strength of a trained force of 70,000 within four months, but that will be insufficient to stand against internal and external threats, a government spokesman said on Sunday.

In a stunning turnaround, Afghanistan is now a more dangerous place for U.S. troops than Iraq. The death rate for U.S. troops in Afghanistan is now nearly twice the rate for those in Iraq, according to an analysis by ABC News.

A roadside bomb killed five Pakistani soldiers near the Afghan border on Thursday while 10 villagers were killed in fighting between soldiers and militants in another area, an official and witnesses said.

NATO air-strikes killed 12 civilian road workers in eastern Afghanistan, a provincial governor said on Wednesday, an incident bound to fuel Afghan resentment against the presence of international forces.

Official negligence contributed to the death toll in Afghanistan’s biggest suicide bombing, which killed 72 people, most of them schoolboys, this month, the interior minister said on Tuesday.