Afghanistan

The young army will be dependent for years to come as it develops several branches, perhaps the most difficult being the air force

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) — Taliban militants hanged a teenager in southern Afghanistan because he had U.S. money in his pocket, and they stuffed five $1 bills in his mouth as a warning to others not to use dollars, police said Monday. Taliban militants elsewhere killed eight police.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghan and U.S.-led coalition troops using airstrikes killed more than 20 suspected militants in southern Afghanistan on Monday, the coalition said, days after President Hamid Karzai renewed his offer to hold peace talks with the Taliban.

A helicopter of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) made an emergency landing in Afghanistan’s southern Kandahar province Sunday, an ISAF statement said.

TEHRAN – Iran Small Industries and Industrial Parks Organization (ISIPO) and Afghanistan’s Ministry of Commerce and Industries signed an industrial memorandum in Mashhad, southeastern Iran, on Sunday.

KABUL (AFP) – Three Afghan civilians were killed in crossfire between Taliban and soldiers in Afghanistan that also left several rebels dead, while two police died trying to defuse a large bomb Sunday, officials said.

KABUL, Afghanistan – President Hamid Karzai offered to meet with the Taliban leader and give militants a government position, but a spokesman for the militant group on Sunday said it will “never” negotiate with Afghan authorities until U.S. and NATO forces leave the country.

KABUL (AFP) — Afghanistan’s Taliban have released four Red Cross workers, including two foreign nationals, captured near the capital four days ago, officials said Saturday.

KABUL, Afghanistan – The International Committee of the Red Cross has established contact with the armed group that kidnapped four of its workers but no progress has been made, officials said Friday.

As of Friday, Sept. 28, 2007, at least 375 members of the U.S. military had died in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan as a result of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, according to the Defense Department. The department last updated its figures Sept. 22, 2007.