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Marines are trying to make good on President Obama's promise to "reverse Taliban momentum" in southern Afghanistan, launching with the first major offensive since the president spoke about his Afghanistan plans Tuesday night. Share U.S. forces attack Taliban insurgents in Helmand Province. In the early morning hours, arriving by helicopter and V22 Osprey aircraft, approximately 300 Marines from Kilo Company of the 3rd Battalion, 4th Marines and the Marine recon unit Task Force Raider, dropped into a strategically important area in northern Helmand Province. This is the first time the Osprey tilt-wing aircraft have been used in an offensive in...

KABUL, Afghanistan - International Security Assistance Forces have responded to false accusations that a U.S. service member burned the Quran last week in the Maydan Shar district, Wardak province. In response to accusations that international forces dishonored the Quran after striking an improvised explosive device in Wardak province Oct. 14, ISAF troops conducted an investigation in conjunction with local Afghan National Army commanders and found the claim groundless. A spokesman for the Governor of Wardak, Mohammad Alim Fadayee, and Mullah Qari of the ANA unit in Wardak, publicly stated that ISAF troops were not responsible for the desecration and found...

HALIFAX, N.S. - Canada's latest contribution to the war on terrorism and piracy slipped out of Halifax harbour in driving rain Sunday on a six-month deployment to the Middle East. Before it left, family and friends gathered on the deck and in the helicopter bay of HMCS Fredericton for a couple of hours to bid an emotional farewell to the 245 crew members who won't be returning until next spring. As Evan and Bianca Entwhistle hugged, their 20-month-old son Finn sandwiched between them, it was hard to distinguish the tears from the rain. "The sad part with this little guy...

Australia on Wednesday flagged moves to bring military operations in Afghanistan to a quick end, despite US and NATO calls for more troops to shore up the campaign against a resurgent Taliban militia. Defence Minister John Faulkner said Australia was studying how to complete the mission in the "shortest time-frame possible". Australia has about 1,550 troops in Afghanistan with no date set for their withdrawal. "I've certainly asked the Australian Defence Force for any recommendations they have about ensuring we do complete that important role and responsibility both effectively, but in the shortest time-frame possible," he told ABC radio. Faulkner...

Bomb attacks have killed three more US troops in Afghanistan, the NATO-run International Security Assistance Force said Saturday. "Two US service members were killed in an improvised explosive device (IED) attack in eastern Afghanistan October 16, and one US service member was killed in an IED attack in southern Afghanistan on the same day," it said.

WASHINGTON, Sept. 4, 2009 – NATO’s International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan has launched an investigation into a coalition air strike that reportedly killed civilians yesterday, military officials reported. NATO officials still are working to ascertain the facts in the incident, which occurred in Regional Command North’s area of operations in Kunduz province, according to an ISAF news release. What is known is that ISAF soldiers reported that insurgents had hijacked two fuel trucks in Kunduz yesterday. The troops located the trucks on the banks of the Kunduz River when the vehicles became stuck in the mud. The troops observed...

Human rights group Amnesty International has argued that Sweden is taking part in torture after the country handed over its first prisoner in Afghanistan to local authorities, according to a report by Sveriges Radio news programme Ekot. "There is an absolute ban on torture and thus also a ban on handing over prisoners to countries in which there is a risk of torture," Lisa Bergh, Amnesty Sweden's Secretary-General, told Ekot. "It is patently clear that prisoners risk torture if they are handed over to the authorities in Afghanistan," Bergh explained. The prisoner was captured by Swedish forces in July after...

Two Canadian soldiers killed and one injured in an explosive device strikeCEFCOM NR–09.021 - August 2, 2009OTTAWA – Two Canadian soldiers were killed and one injured when an improvised explosive device detonated near a patrol in the Zhari District. The incident occurred approximately 15 kilometres west of Kandahar City at around 3:20 p.m., Kandahar time, on 1 August, 2009. Killed in action was Corporal Christian Bobbitt from 5e Régiment du génie de combat serving as a member of the 2nd Battalion, Royal 22e Régiment Battle Group based in Valcartier, Quebec. The next of kin for the second soldier killed has...

Swedish military forces were involved in a battle in Aqchah in northern Afghanistan on Thursday night. No Swedish soldiers have been reported injured. The battle began around 6.30pm on Thursday night when opposition groups ambushed the Swedish troops. The Swedes were in armoured wheeled vehicles and later received reinforcements from several soldiers in a Combat Vehicle 90. “The firefights were intermittant during the evening and night,” Veronica Sandström, press officer for the Swedish Armed Forces (Försvarsmakten), told the TT news agency. The Dagens Nyheter (DN) newspaper reported Friday that three members of the attacking troops were killed and an additional...

WASHINGTON, July 20, 2009 – Afghan and coalition forces killed enemy fighters, detained others and seized weapons in Afghanistan in the past four days, military officials reported. Afghan National Army and NATO International Security Assistance Force soldiers killed 10 anti-Afghan fighters in Pech district of Afghanistan’s Kunar province July 17 after receiving small-arms fire while on a routine patrol. Coalition close-air support from the 455th Air Expeditionary Wing at Bagram Airfield aided the force. No ISAF soldiers were killed in the incident. This was the second time in a week that ISAF and Afghan National Army forces eliminated a significant...

Helicopter Crash - Two Canadian and one ISAF soldier have died and three others injuredCEFCOM NR–09.019 - July 7, 2009OTTAWA– Two Canadian air crew members and one ISAF soldier were killed when a Canadian CH-146 Griffon helicopter crashed during take-off. The incident occurred at a Forward Operating Base in Tarnak Va Jaldak, Zabul Province, northeast of Kandahar City at around 1:50 p.m., Kandahar time, on 6 July 2009. Killed in action were MCpl Pat Audet from 430e Escadron tactique d'hélicoptères based at Canadian Forces Base Valcartier and Cpl Martin Joannette from the 3e Bataillon, Royal 22e Régiment based at Canadian...

WASHINGTON, July 1, 2009 – It would be easy to confuse Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan with the NATO International Security Assistance Force there. Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal commands both organizations. The biggest difference, officials say, is the mission. Operation Enduring Freedom was the U.S.-led operation that toppled the Taliban in 2001. American and coalition servicemembers worked with the Afghan Northern Alliance soon after the terror attack in the United States on Sept. 11, 2001. Part of Operation Enduring Freedom retains that mission: to find and kill or capture terrorists. Since 2001, servicemembers assigned to Operation Enduring Freedom also have...

Three German soldiers died on Tuesday amid heavy fighting in northern Afghanistan. The casualties are just the latest indication that security in the north, the region in which Germany leads the peacekeeping effort, is deteriorating. For months, attacks on German troops operating in the northern Afghanistan region around Kunduz have been increasing. On Tuesday, three Bundeswehr soldiers died in yet another Taliban offensive. According to the Defense Ministry in Berlin, Islamist insurgents attacked a patrol six kilometers southwest of Kunduz with grenade launchers and small arms fire. In the ensuing firefight, an armored personnel carrier plunged into a deep ditch...

KABUL – The top U.S. general in Afghanistan will soon formally order U.S. and NATO forces to break away from fights with militants hiding in Afghan houses so the battles do not kill civilians, a U.S. official said Monday. The order would be one of the strongest measures taken by a U.S. commander to protect Afghan civilians in battle. American commanders say such deaths hurt their mission because they turn average Afghans against the government and U.S. and NATO forces. Civilian casualties are a major source of friction between Afghan President Hamid Karzai and the U.S. The U.N. says U.S.,...

WASHINGTON, June 15, 2009 – Army Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal assumed command of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan today, vowing that the coalition will prevail despite a struggle he conceded will be “long and hard.” “2009 will be a critical year for Afghanistan, and a critical year for our coalition,” McChrystal said at a morning assumption-of-command ceremony at the ISAF headquarters in Kabul. “Although we face many challenges, with your steadfast commitment, professionalism and dedication and with the help and support of our Afghan friends and the international community, we will prevail.” McChrystal acknowledged the legacy and...

Pursuant to President Obama’s decision today, Secretary Gates ordered the deployment of two additional combat units, totaling more than 12,000 troops, to Afghanistan. The 2d Marine Expeditionary Brigade (MEB), from Camp Lejeune, N.C., with approximately 8,000 Marines will deploy to Afghanistan in late Spring 2009. The 5th Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division from Ft. Lewis, Wash., will deploy approximately 4,000 soldiers to Afghanistan in mid-summer 2009. This Stryker Brigade and the MEB will deploy to increase the capabilities of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). Approximately 5,000 additional troops to support these combat forces will receive deployment orders at a...

Afghanistan has been a very tough endeavor.  Certainly, there have been important achievements there over the past seven years – agreement on a constitution, elections, and establishment of a government; increased access to education, health care, media, and telecommunications; construction of a significant number of infrastructure projects; development of the Afghan National Army; and others. But in recent years the resurgence of the Taliban and Al Qaeda has led to an increase in violence, especially in the southern and eastern parts of the country.  Numerous other challenges have emerged as well, among them:  difficulties in the development of governmental institutions...

NATO-led soldiers have captured a Taliban commander said to have links to the most senior figures in the extremist militia that is waging an insurgency in Afghanistan, the force said Sunday. Mullah Sakhi Dad and another insurgent were captured at a compound in the southern province of Uruzgan on Wednesday, NATO's International Security Assistance Force said in a statement. He had been leading a "significant number of Taliban fighters" and was implicated in suicide bombings, the distribution of ammunition and the kidnapping of Afghan civilians, it said.

via translation- Pakistan: 15 people killed in a raid of international forces in Afghanistan PESHAWAR (Pakistan) - At least 15 people, including civilians, were killed Wednesday in the north-west Pakistan in an attack involving helicopters international forces based in Afghanistan, told AFP the heads of security services Pakistani. "Four helicopter gunships have crossed the border and launched the attack," assured AFP one of these sources, who requested anonymity. "Helicopters from Afghanistan were involved," confirmed to AFP Mowaz Khan, a senior official of the administration of the tribal district of South Waziristan where the raid took place in the border village...

KANDAHAR - Three Canadian soldiers have been killed in Zhari district in Afghanistan by an improvised explosive device. One soldier was also seriously injured after the device detonated near their vehicle at about 10:30 a.m. local time on Wednesday. One of the soldiers has been identified as Sgt. Shawn Eades, who was on his third tour in Afghanistan and is being described as a devoted father. The families have all been notified, but the Department of National Defence is not releasing the names of the other soldiers at this point. The three soldiers were combat engineers with 12 Field Squadron,...