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KABUL - More than 3,000 civilians were killed in the war in Afghanistan in 2011, the fifth year in a row the number has risen, the United Nations said on Saturday in a report likely to revive tension between the Afghan government and its Western backers. Civilian deaths undermine support both in Afghanistan and the United States for the US-led war, and are one of the biggest causes of friction between President Hamid Karzai and the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). Bombs planted on roads, and increasingly deadly suicide attacks that targeted civilians, killed more people than any other...

The Taliban in Afghanistan are being directly assisted by Pakistani security services, according to a secret Nato report seen by the BBC. The leaked report, derived from thousands of interrogations, claims the Taliban remain defiant and have wide support among the Afghan people. It alleges that Pakistan knows the locations of senior Taliban leaders. A BBC correspondent says the report is painful reading for international forces and the Afghan government. Pakistan has strenuously denied any links with the Taliban on previous occasions. "We have long been concerned about ties between elements of the ISI and some extremist networks," said US...

KINGSTON, Ontario – A jury on Sunday found an Afghan father, his wife and their son guilty of killing three teenage sisters and a co-wife in what the judge described as "cold-blooded, shameful murders" resulting from a "twisted concept of honor." The jury took 15 hours to find Mohammad Shafia, 58; his wife Tooba Yahya, 42; and their son Hamed, 21, each guilty of four counts of first-degree murder in a case that shocked and riveted Canadians from coast to coast.

KABUL, Afghanistan – A man in an Afghan army uniform opened fire on a group of Americans at a base in the south of the country, killing a U.S. soldier and wounding another, an Afghan military spokesman said Monday. Spokesman Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi said the gunman was also killed in the shootout on Sunday. "Right now, an investigation is going on to determine whether he really was a soldier or someone using an army uniform. And if he was a soldier, what caused the shooting," Azimi said. Similar attacks have raised fears of increased Taliban infiltration of the Afghan...

WASHINGTON — Four-star general-turned-CIA director David Petraeus almost resigned as Afghanistan war commander over President Barack Obama's decision to quickly draw down surge forces, according to a new insider's look at Petraeus' 37-year Army career. Petraeus decided that resigning would be a "selfish, grandstanding move with huge political ramifications" and that now was "time to salute and carry on," according to a forthcoming biography. Author and Petraeus confidante Paula Broadwell had extensive access to the general in Afghanistan and Washington

Raped Afghan woman freed without condition of marrying attacker: Lawyer Kabul, Dec 3 : An Afghan women who was raped by her husband's cousin and was jailed for adultery has been set free without being pressurized to marry her attacker, according to her lawyer. According to Kimberly Motley, Gulnaz's lawyer said that Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai office personally clarified that the women does not have to marry the man who attacked her honour in 2009. Kimberly said that 21-year-old Gulnaz would be released with no pre-conditions and would then be free to marry whomever she chooses. "She doesn't have plans...

The Turkish flag flown, and rifles used, by Gool Mohammed and Mullah Abdullah during the Battle of Broken Hill, January 1, 1915.The war seemed a very long way away to the citizens of Broken Hill that January 1.It was the height of the southern summer, and the Australian silver-mining town baked in the outback desert heat, 720 miles from Sydney and half a world away from the mud and blood of the Western Front. The First World War was less than five months old, and only a fool would have accused the hardened miners of Broken Hill of lacking patriotism,...

(CNSNews.com) -- There is not a single, public Christian church left in Afghanistan, according to the U.S. State Department. This reflects the state of religious freedom in that country ten years after the United States first invaded it and overthrew its Islamist Taliban regime. In the intervening decade, U.S. taxpayers have spent $440 billion to support Afghanistan's new government and more than 1,700 U.S. military personnel have died serving in that country. The last public Christian church in Afghanistan was razed in March 2010, according to the State Department's latest International Religious Freedom Report. The report, which was released last...

US finds new friend in Uzbekistan after Pakistan fallout President Obama has asked Uzbekistan to expand its role in resupplying troops in Afghanistan as Washington tries to reduce its dependence on Pakistan. By Rob Crilly, Islamabad and James Kilner in Astana 5:05PM BST 30 Sep 2011 The past fortnight has seen relations between Islamabad and Washington sink to new lows over allegations that Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency was working with the Haqqani network to direct attacks on American targets in Afghanistan. The crisis, the latest in a turbulent year, has seen both countries scrambling to build up alternative regional alliances....

Peshawar, 30 September 2011, Provincial government has decided to kick out Afghan Refugees whose employees in Afghan national Force in Afghanistan and they were staying in Pakistan. KP government has also ordered to different department to push the afghan refuges that’s have homes in Khyber PukhtoonKhwa province. Home department also ordered to Intelligence agencies and Revenue Board to collect the information about afghan refugees. The decision has made in meeting whose presiding by provincial Secretary interior Mohammad Azam Khan on Saturday at Pesahwar. The officer of Different departments has attended the meeting. Its has decided that Special Branch of Police...

Peshawar, 25 September 2011, Government has decided to deport more than 100 officials of Afghan National Army present in Afghan refugee camps in wake of terrorism threats. Federal Ministry of Interior has send report from provincial government of Khyber Pukhtoonkhwa and FATA Secretariat to submit complete details of personnel of Afghan National Army, who are living in the camps of Afghan refugees, located either in KP or tribal areas. Provincial government has given the list of more 100 officials of Afghan National Army residence in the refugee camps. It is also known that they used to travel between Afghanistan and...

It is standard procedure for U.S. special operations units, such as the elite Navy SEALs, to be supplemented by Afghan forces during missions against insurgents in Afghanistan, according to the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force-Afghanistan (ISAF). Such forces were in the helicopter that crashed on Aug. 6, killing 30 U.S. soldiers, most of them SEAL members.U.S. Army Lt. Col. Jimmie Cummings Jr., a spokesman for ISAF, told CNSNews.com in an e-mail today that Afghan forces were in the U.S. helicopter that crashed in eastern Afghanistan on Aug. 6 because “the majority of our operations are combined coalition/Afghan missions.”

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan could pull back troops fighting Islamist militants near the Afghan border if the United States cuts off aid, the defense minister said on Tuesday in an interview with Pakistani media. The United States Monday said it would hold back $800 million -- a third of nearly $2 billion in security aid to Pakistan -- in a show of displeasure over Pakistan's removal of U.S. military trainers, limits on visas for U.S. personnel and other bilateral irritants. "If at all things become difficult, we will just get all our forces back," Defense Minister Ahmed Mukhtar said in...

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai's powerful half brother, a lightning rod for criticism of all that is wrong with the Afghan government, was assassinated by a bodyguard Tuesday at his home in the southern province of Kandahar, officials said. Ahmed Wali Karzai, who was head of the Kandahar provincial council, had become a political liability for the Karzai government after a series of allegations, including that he was on the CIA payroll and involved in drug trafficking. He denied the charges, and the president repeatedly defended him, denouncing accusations that his brother was involved in criminal activities...

KABUL (AFP) – The Taliban once banned all television, music and cinema in Afghanistan, but now they are fighting their war via Twitter, the online messaging network that revolutionised global communication. The Islamist extremists sent out their first tweet in English on May 12 claiming "enemy attacked in Khak-e-Safid", with a link to their website for more details about rebel fighters killing "at least 6 puppet police". The move into the English language on Twitter is the latest sign that the Taliban are embracing modern technology in the propaganda battle that runs alongside the guerrilla war of ambushes, suicide bombings...

Kathleen Battschinger received a call at her Mays Landing home last year with an unusual request. A doctor was needed to help a 6-year-old boy in Afghanistan who was born with his bladder outside his body. Battschinger's son, Army Maj. Glenn Battschinger, of Mays Landing, was on foot patrol in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, in April 2010 when he came across Muslam Hagigshah, who was bowlegged and held his leaking bladder in his hand. She said her son told her the boy was begging for help along a street with his mother. "Glenn really felt he had to do something for this...

Before dawn approximately 475 Taliban fighters escaped from a large prison in Kandahar. The Prisoners opened their cell doors and left the prison through a well prepared tunnel. Like the classic movie “The Great Escape” They managed to escape without being detected. This is not be a Hollywood script but may have been influenced by one. The Tunnel In a well thought-out plan to break out prisoners took 5 months to build a tunnel from a local house to the section of the prisons where the fighters were being held. The 1000 foot tunnel were designed and dug by engineers,...

KABUL, Afghanistan – Afghanistan's president on Sunday rejected a U.S. apology for the mistaken killing of nine Afghan boys in a NATO air attack and said civilian casualties are no longer acceptable. According to a statement from his office, Hamid Karzai told Gen. David Petraeus, the top commander of coalition forces in Afghanistan, that expressing regret was not sufficient in last week's killing of the boys, ages 12 and under, by coalition helicopters. NATO has also apologized for the mistaken killings. Civilian casualties from coalition operations are a major source of strain in the already difficult relationship between Karzai's government...

Snips from Excerpt only website: An Afghan physiotherapist will be executed within three days for converting to Christianity. Said Musa, 45, has been held for eight months in a Kabul prison were he claims he has been tortured and sexually abused by inmates and guards. He claims he was visited by a judge who told him he would be hanged within days unless he converted back to Islam.

In late December, we scored Joe Biden for putting his foot through the Administration's carefully designed Afghan diplomacy. The Vice President declared to much media fanfare on NBC's "Meet the Press" that U.S. troops would start leaving Afghanistan this summer and that "We're going to be totally out of there, come hell or high water, by 2014." We're happy to say the Veep seems to be coming around. This week on a visit to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Mr. Biden reversed himself in a way that deserves as much attention as his earlier blunder. "It is not our intention to govern...

A document released by WikiLeaks described efforts by high-ranking Afghan officials to quash reports of police officers and other Afghans arrested for "purchasing a service from a child." The leaked diplomatic cable quoted former Minister of the Interior Hanif Atmar's concern that publicity about the arrests, which involved the hiring of "dancing boys," would "endanger lives." The author of the diplomatic cable fretted that the case would be "blown out of proportion, an outcome that would not be good for either the U.S. or Afghanistan." The vast gulf between U.S. and Afghan attitudes about homosexuality and pedophilia has generated concern...

http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/scotland/Scots-troops-find-Afghans-love.6647111.jp

Washington - Afghan President Hamid Karzai, in an interview published Sunday, called on the United States to scale down its military activity in his country. 'The time has come to reduce military operations,' Karzai said in an interview with the Washington Post newspaper. The president said the Afghan population was unable to cope with the massive international military presence and wanted to see an end to the 'intrusiveness' of the soldiers in daily life.

SANGIN, Afghanistan – U.S. Marines who recently inherited this lush river valley in southern Helmand province from British forces have tossed aside their predecessor's playbook in favor of a more aggressive strategy to tame one of the most violent places in Afghanistan. U.S. commanders say success is critical in Sangin district — where British forces suffered nearly one-third of their deaths in the war — because it is the last remaining sanctuary in Helmand where the Taliban can freely process the opium and heroin that largely fund the insurgency. The district also serves as a key crossroads to funnel drugs,...

KABUL, Afghanistan -- A soldier from the U.S.-trained Afghan army apparently turned his weapon on American troops in volatile southern Afghanistan, killing at least two U.S. soldiers, NATO officials said Saturday. The incident is the latest that calls into question the allegiances of at least some members of the Afghan security forces, which the Obama administration hopes will be the key to an eventual withdrawal of roughly 100,000 U.S. troops from Afghanistan. A NATO official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the matter is still under investigation, said the shootings took place late Thursday in southern Helmand province. The area...

KABUL, Afghanistan – Taliban officials have engaged in periodic, discreet contacts with Afghan and U.S. officials for months but are unwilling to move to formal peace negotiations until the U.S. agrees to a timetable for the withdrawal of all foreign troops, according to a Pakistani intelligence official and members of a newly formed Afghan peace council. The White House said Wednesday that President Barack Obama supports attempts by the Afghan government to open peace talks with Taliban leaders, but still wants the insurgents to renounce violence and their support of al-Qaida. However, press secretary Robert Gibbs said the United States...

Washington - The U.S. is planning a concerted campaign against lower-level corruption in Afghanistan thought to be directly feeding the insurgency and is ceding more control to Afghans of the higher-level investigations that soured relations with President Hamid Karzai. The Obama administration has made the battle against government corruption a key part of its Afghanistan war strategy for the past year, arguing that graft and fraud within Mr. Karzai's inner circle fuel public support for the Taliban. Now some top officials say corruption further down the food chain has a bigger impact on the insurgency's strength. (Snip) Officials said the

12 US Soldiers are facing trial in the deaths of Afghan civilians - being described as cold-blooded murder.

MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin (AFP) – The White House said Monday that July 2011 was a "non-negotiable" deadline for starting a US withdrawal from Afghanistan, while insisting that President Barack Obama and his top general in Kabul were on the same page. The White House was quizzed about a seeming disconnect between the two after General David Petraeus said in an interview aired Sunday that he could seek a delay in the troop drawdown if conditions on the ground required it. "I think the president has been quite clear in explaining that it's a process, not an event, and that it's conditions-based,"...

LONDON (Reuters) – A leak of thousands of classified U.S. military documents has damaged the ability of foreign forces to gain the support of Afghans against the Taliban, a British military spokesman said on Thursday. Major-General Gordon Messenger told reporters the leak last month by whistleblowing organization WikiLeaks had not given Taliban insurgents a tactical advantage, but the documents' disclosure of Afghan contacts could deter further cooperation. "I think the damage that I would highlight is to the Afghans that were named. We rely upon very, very many Afghans who are prepared to nail their colors to the legitimate Afghanistan,...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The new commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan issued a directive on Wednesday that could facilitate use of air strikes but also called on troops to do everything possible to avoid putting civilians at risk. General David Petraeus, who took command of the nine-year-old war in Afghanistan in July, did not rewrite the rules guiding the use of force in his new "tactical directive." But U.S. officials said he clarified them in a way that may address concerns that some troops -- erring on the side of caution -- had avoided calling in air power...

OUTPOST NOLEN, Afghanistan (Reuters) – Elite U.S. special forces soldiers are relieving insurgent pressure on American outposts in the volatile Arghandab Valley with a series of night attacks on suspected Taliban hideouts. The raids, backed by a "Spectre" C-130 gunship and Afghan commandos, began four days ago in the village of Khosrow Sofla, and followed weeks of near-daily attacks by insurgents on American bases near the town of Jelawar. "We considered it an area of Taliban sanctuary, or at least of tacit or semi-permissive support," said U.S. Army Major Brendan Raymond, of Woodbridge, Virginia. Last month, the U.S. military said...

WASHINGTON (AFP) – A top US lawmaker on Monday blasted the source of a huge cache of leaked military documents on the Afghan war and said such leakers belong in the "orange jump suits" of jailed criminals. "It is shocking that any American, much less someone in the Pentagon, would betray his country and possibly put our soldiers at risk by leaking information on the ongoing war in Afghanistan," said the senior Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, Kit Bond. "The damage to our national security caused by leaks like this won't stop until we see more perpetrators in orange...

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The White House denounced a massive leak of secret military files that allegedly describe how Pakistan's spy service aids the Afghan insurgency, but said the information was no surprise. In all, some 92,000 documents were released by the web whistleblower Wikileaks, containing previously untold details of the Afghan war through Pentagon files and field reports spanning from 2004 to 2010. According to the New York Times, one of the first three media outlets to review and report on the leaks, they "suggest that Pakistan, an ostensible ally of the United States, allows representatives of its spy service...

LOS ANGELES – A tough-talking, muscular Los Angeles police sergeant steadily rattled off tips to a young Marine riding shotgun as they raced in a patrol car to a drug bust: Be aware of your surroundings. Watch people's body language. Build rapport. Marine Lt. Andrew Abbott, 23, took it all in as he peered out at the graffiti-covered buildings, knowing that the lessons he learned recently in one of the city's toughest neighborhoods could help him soon in the war against the Taliban in Afghanistan. "People are the center of gravity and if you do everything you can to protect...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Republican Party leader Michael Steele faced heavy criticism and calls for his resignation on Friday after blaming President Barack Obama for the Afghanistan war and suggesting it could not be won. At a Republican fundraiser in Connecticut on Thursday, Steele was videotaped while criticizing Obama's decision to bolster the Afghanistan war effort. The comments contradicted the stance of the party, which has consistently pushed for more troops and funding in Afghanistan. "This was a war of Obama's choosing," said Steele, chairman of the Republican National Committee. "This is not something the United States had actively prosecuted or...

As many as 150 insurgent fighters have been killed since Sunday in a major offensive involving about 700 U.S. and Afghan troops along eastern Afghanistan's border with Pakistan, a senior military official confirmed to Fox News early Tuesday. The U.S.-led operation was one of the largest yet in the region, officials told The Washington Post, who described the assault as "one of the most intense battles of the past year."

'How'd I get screwed into going to this dinner?" demands Gen. Stanley McChrystal. It's a Thursday night in mid-April, and the commander of all U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan is sitting in a four-star suite at the Hôtel Westminster in Paris. He's in France to sell his new war strategy to our NATO allies – to keep up the fiction, in essence, that we actually have allies. Since McChrystal took over a year ago, the Afghan war has become the exclusive property of the United States. Opposition to the war has already toppled the Dutch government, forced the resignation...

A Texas congressman is demanding answers from the Air Force on the current status of the 10 AWOL Afghan military deserters, which he called a breach of national security. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, asked Air Force Secretary Michael B. Donley for an immediate report on the status of the missing men and an assessment of the potential threat to citizens of Texas. He demanded to know why he was not informed about the missing Afghans over the course of the last two years. "Your department's failure to provide critical information related to this incident is unacceptable," Cornyn wrote. "Finally, it...

uh oh seems to be an understatement here... Seems some Afghanistan "pals", training to become pilots, were here in the US to learn English. All, including both officers and enlisted men, have security security badges that give them access to secure U.S. defense installations. The Afghans were attending the Defense Language Institute at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas. The DLI program teaches English to military pilot candidates and other air force prospects from foreign countries allied with the U.S. "I can confirm that 17 have gone missing from the Defense Language Institute," said Gary Emery, Chief of Public Affairs,...

The following 17 Afghan military members have gone AWOL from an Air Force base in Texas and are being sought in a nationwide alert in the U.S. Citizens are asked to be on the look out for any of the following: Mohammad Mo. Mohammad, born 8/8/1977 (Carries decapitating knife at all times.) Mohammad M. "C-4" Mohammad, born 9/3/1982 (Drives late model Mercedes with burning fuse. Mohammad Muhammad Mohammad, born 12/4/1966 (Has box cutter collection.) M.M. Mohammad, born 8/27/1982 (Has tattoo of woman scantily clad in a head-to-toe burqa on right arm.) Mohammad M. Mohammad, Jr. 5/5/1978 (Had tattoo of "MOM"...

FOX News is reporting that 17 Afghan military members are AWOL from a training base in Texas. This would be an interesting story, except for one thing: They didn’t just go AWOL. They’ve been missing for quite awhile, and we are now JUST getting around to hearing about it. This is further proof that our military, bloated like a bureaucratic pig, is only trying to cover its proverbial rear while it continues to exhibit incompetence. "I can confirm that 17 have gone missing from the Defense Language Institute," said Gary Emery, Chief of Public Affairs, 37th Training Wing, at Lackland...

Afghan minerals may be triple original estimate: Mining Minister 17 June 2010, 1:28 p.m. By Daniela Cambone Of Kitco News www.kitco.com Montreal -- (Kitco News) --Afghanistan's mining minister, said Thursday that mineral deposits in his country could be worth up to three trillion dollars, triple the US estimate from earlier this week. "A very conservative estimate has been one trillion. Our estimation is more than that... the idea is it could be up to three trillion dollars," mining minister Waheedullah Shahrani told a news conference today in Kabul. Kitco News interviewed Shahrani back in March on the sidelines of the...

A nationwide alert has been issued for 17 members of the Afghan military who have gone AWOL from a Texas Air Force base where foreign military officers who are training to become pilots are taught English, FoxNews.com has learned. The Afghan officers and enlisted men have security badges that give them access to secure U.S. defense installations, according to the lookout bulletin, "Afghan Military Deserters in CONUS [Continental U.S.]," issued by Naval Criminal Investigative Service in Dallas, and obtained by FoxNews.com. The Afghans were attending the Defense Language Institute at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas. The DLI program teaches...

The Army says four more soldiers from Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state have been charged with premeditated murder in the killing of three Afghan civilians earlier this year. In all, five soldiers have been charged. All are assigned to the 5th Stryker Brigade Combat Team.

Taliban Executes Boy, 7, Accused Of Spying As Suicide Bomber Kills 40 Children At Wedding 10th June 2010 Boy hanged in Helmand province after being put on trial by militants More than 40 killed and 77 injured after bomb rips through wedding Cameron pledges extra £67m for British troops on first visit to country Taliban militants have executed a seven-year-old boy they accused of being a spy, it emerged today. The child was abducted from his home and taken to a neighbouring village where he was put on trial. His captors found him guilty of working for the government. The...

On Tuesday, the Associated Free Press reported that Abdul Sattar Khawasi, deputy secretary of the Afghan lower house in parliament, called for the execution of Christian converts from Islam. Speaking in regards to a video broadcasted by Afghan television network Noorin TV showing footage of Christian men being baptized and praying in Farsi, Khawasi said, "Those Afghans that appeared in this video film should be executed in public, the house should order the attorney general and the NDS (intelligence agency) to arrest these Afghans and execute them.” The broadcast triggered a protest by hundreds of Kabul University students on Monday,...

KABUL (AFP) – As the pink poppy fields of southern Afghanistan yield their sticky harvest, opium production in the country that supplies the world with heroin is set to fall, farmers and officials say. That's good news for the fight against the multi-billion-dollar drugs trade but it could be bad news for Afghan farmers struggling to feed their families as the war against Taliban insurgents and drugs gangs escalates. "This year we had less poppy cultivation, which I think was because of our public awareness campaign which we launched before cultivation started," said Gul Mohammad, head of the counter-narcotics department...

LASHKAR GAH -- Aziz Ahmad is a deeply worried man. With two wives and seven children at home, the 30-year-old farmer depends entirely on his opium-poppy crop to make a living. This year, it's proving to be an increasingly difficult task. First, falling water tables stunted his crop. Then a mysterious blight emerged to destroy most of what remained. In a normal growing season, Ahmad's 4-hectare plot in the Washer district of Afghanistan's southern Helmand Province yields 100 kilograms of opium -- enough to cover his debts and ensure his family's survival over the winter. This year he managed to...

KABUL – In an attempt to steal the spotlight from Afghan President Hamid Karzai's trip to Washington, the Taliban on Saturday threatened to launch a series of attacks across Afghanistan — a claim the defense minister quickly dismissed as insurgent propaganda. The Taliban said their spring offensive, targeting Afghan and NATO military and staff plus foreign contractors, would begin on Monday — the same day that Karzai begins meetings in Washington. A statement in English posted on the group's website said the offensive dubbed "al-Faath," which means victory, will include "ambushes, detonations of explosive devices, assassinations of government officials, suicide...