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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama is wrapping up deliberations on war strategy in Afghanistan and is considering final Pentagon options that include sending about 30,000 more troops, officials said on Saturday. A deployment of that size would be less than the 40,000-troop increase recommended by Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, but more than many of Obama's Democratic allies may support. Record combat deaths have eroded U.S. public support for the war, and a decision to expand troop levels could become a political liability for the president ahead of congressional elections next...

In the protracted Washington debate over the war in Afghanistan, the most concise analysis so far has come from America’s top soldier: “If we don’t get a level of legitimacy and governance (there), then all the troops in the world aren’t going to make any difference.”Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was speaking two days after Hamid Karzai was declared the winner, by default, in August elections so massively rigged that a U.N.-backed electoral complaints committee threw out about a million Karzai votes. That forced a run-off from which his challenger, former foreign minister Abdullah...

Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Two members of the NATO-led military force in Afghanistan have been missing since Wednesday, the force said Friday. The soldiers were reported missing after going on a routine resupply mission in western Afghanistan, the International Security Assistance Force told CNN.

War On Terror: Sen. John Kerry, who was so wrong about Iraq, now says our commander in Afghanistan is "reaching too far, too fast" and that a "good enough" policy should suffice. It won't. Offering his advice on how to micromanage the war against the Taliban, Kerry said Gen. Stanley McChrystal, President Obama's hand-picked general to fight what he called a "war of necessity," is wrong in saying he needs 40,000 more troops to fight and win it. Speaking before the Council on Foreign Relations on Monday, Kerry advocated a "good enough" policy designed not to achieve victory in al-Qaida's...

BRUSSELS (AFP) – A Norwegian warship inspecting fishing boats off the coast of Somalia for suspected pirate activity was caught in heavy gunfire in the early hours of Sunday, a European Union naval commander said. The Norwegian sailors, cruising just off the north-eastern Somali coast, were fired upon in the dead of night by a dhow with between five and seven men on board and armed with heavy weaponry and Kalashnikov rifles, he added. ..... "The boarding party returned fire in self-defence -- and retreated to 1,000 metres (yards), because their main job was to escort a World Food Programme...

PRISTINA, Kosovo – Thousands of ethnic Albanians braved low temperatures and a cold wind in Kosovo's capital Pristina to welcome former President Bill Clinton on Sunday as he attended the unveiling of an 11-foot (3.5-meter) statue of himself on a key boulevard that also bears his name. Clinton is celebrated as a hero by Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority for launching NATO's bombing campaign against Yugoslavia in 1999 that stopped the brutal Serb forces' crackdown on independence-seeking ethnic Albanians. This is his first visit to Kosovo since it declared independence from Serbia last year. Many waved American, Albanian and Kosovo flags...

More than 300 killed and injured is the cost of the “welcome” given to the U.S Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, by the extremist militants of the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Pakistan. This massacre, which was committed by means of a car bomb in Peshawar, coincided with another massive attack at the heart of Kabul, when the Taliban targeted United Nations employees in order to strike a major blow to the international body’s role in Afghanistan. Such attacks provide the latest evidence that al-Qaeda and the Taliban are now in an intensive mode of counter-attack, aimed at challenging the American...

BRUSSELS, October 28 (RIA Novosti) - Russia could supply helicopters for NATO-led operations in Afghanistan, an executive at the state hi-tech corporation Russian Technology said on Wednesday. "We are prepared on commercial terms to provide the NATO coalition forces with helicopters of different types," the company's deputy general director, Dmitry Shugayev, told reporters. Shugayev said the coalition forces were experiencing helicopter shortages in Afghanistan. He also said Russia could train crews for the helicopters. In June, Russia and NATO agreed to restart cooperation on security issues, frozen after Russia fought a brief war with ex-Soviet Georgia in August 2008. Russia's...

'There is no doubt he is our friend," Turkey's prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, says of Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, even as he accuses Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman of threatening to use nuclear weapons against Gaza. These outrageous assertions point to the profound change of orientation by Turkey's government - for six decades the West's closest Muslim ally - since Erdogan's AK party came to power in 2002. Three events this past month reveal the extent of that change. The first came on October 11 with the news that the Turkish military - a long-time bastion of secularism and advocate...

War On Terror: Sen. John Kerry, who was so wrong about Iraq, now says our commander in Afghanistan is "reaching too far, too fast" and that a "good enough" policy should suffice. It won't. Offering his advice on how to micromanage the war against the Taliban, Kerry said Gen. Stanley McChrystal, President Obama's hand-picked general to fight what he called a "war of necessity," is wrong in saying he needs 40,000 more troops to fight and win it. Speaking before the Council on Foreign Relations on Monday, Kerry advocated a "good enough" policy designed not to achieve victory in al-Qaida's...

"Taliban use kids in combat roles NATO troops wary of firing on children" BY MATTHEW FISHER, CANWEST NEWS SERVICE OCTOBER 26, 2009 SNIPPET: "A 12-year-old boy caught in the act Friday as he put a homemade bomb under a road in the volatile Zhari District grabbed a baby as a human shield to protect himself from attack from the United States helicopter that spotted him." SNIPPPET: "Among them were three blasts in Kandahar in the past few weeks in which as many as 12 Afghan children were blown up as they were being taught how to make or place improvised...

NATO defense ministers Friday endorsed the kind of broad counterinsurgency approach for Afghanistan that is the basis for the pending troop request by the NATO and the U.S. commander there, General Stanley McChrystal. The ministers, including U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, are meeting in Bratislava, Slovakia. NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen says the defense ministers have a "general shared view" that the alliance must make Afghanistan strong enough to defend itself against militant forces. And he said the ministers also agree on the approach for accomplishing that. "There is the support of this counterinsurgency strategy, which means that ministers...

The United States and Georgia will begin military exercises on October 26 in preparation for sending troops to Afghanistan, a foreign liaison officer in the US embassy in Tbilisi said on Saturday. The US embassy on Friday said the exercises would begin on October 24. "The program is specifically designed to enhance Georgia's ability to conduct joint counterinsurgency operations in Afghanistan together with US forces," the embassy statement said on Friday. The two-week joint military exercise, code-named Immediate Response, will be held in Georgia and will include training in counterterrorist operations. US military instructors have already arrived at the Krtsanisi...

Note: The following text is a quote: American Forces Press Service Gates Finds Broad Support for New Missile Defense Approach By Donna Miles American Forces Press Service BRATISLAVA, Slovakia, Oct. 23, 2009 – NATO defense ministers are expressing broad support for the new U.S. approach to missile defense in Europe and the opportunity it may offer to make Russia a partner in the effort, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said today. Speaking to reporters during a NATO defense ministers conference here, Gates said he’s hearing “quite broad support for the new approach,” as well as “interest in extending our hand...

BRATISLAVA, Slovakia, Oct. 23, 2009 – Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said today he’s encouraged by unofficial endorsements NATO defense ministers are expressing for Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s strategy proposals for Afghanistan, along with indications they’re considering additional resources to support the mission there. Gates, here for a NATO ministerial, emphasized that he is in a “listening mode” and not pressing for specific contributions. “This was not the forum for anyone to express a view of any commitment,” he said. McChrystal’s resource requests, including troop recommendations, are working their way through the NATO chain of command and will be addressed...

BRATISLAVA, Slovakia, Oct. 23, 2009 – Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and his fellow NATO defense ministers will hear today from the commander of the alliance’s International Security Assistance Force and U.S. forces in Afghanistan. Army Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal will offer his on-the-ground assessment of conditions and progress in building the Afghan security forces in both numbers and capability during an alliance defense ministers conference that’s under way here, NATO officials said. Gates will participate in several sessions focused on the NATO mission in Afghanistan. During a working lunch, he’ll meet with allied ministers and their counterparts from non-NATO...

NATO Defense Ministers Endorse Wider Afghan Effort By THOM SHANKER BRATISLAVA, Slovakia — NATO defense ministers gave their broad endorsement Friday to the counterinsurgency strategy for Afghanistan laid out by Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, increasing pressure on the Obama administration and on their own governments to commit more military and civilian resources to the mission. General McChrystal, the senior American and allied commander in Afghanistan, landed here early Friday to brief NATO defense ministers on his strategic review of an eight-year war in which the American-led effort has lost momentum to a tenacious insurgency. The closed-door session — which had...

BELGRADE -- Russian Emergency Situations Minister Sergei Shoigu says that Serbia, as a part of Europe, will be part of a common European security concept. Sergei Shoigu (Beta, archive) He refused to get into details regarding the concept after his meeting with Serbian Interior Minister Ivica Da�ić, and advised journalists to them to ask Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who was in Serbia yesterday. “It is best to ask Medvedev about it, because he has discussed it several times, even in detail recently, so I would not like to give any misinformation on the issue,� Shoigu said. Da�ić added that the...

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...

Afghanistan: The president's decision to withhold more troops over the country's less-than-pristine election is nothing but stalling. For our soldiers, desperate for reinforcements, it's a slap in the face. No doubt, a legitimate government, complete with free and fair elections, would be good for Afghanistan. Its Aug. 20 vote was loaded with trouble because the Taliban sliced off purple-inked fingers to discourage voting and because a United Nations electoral watchdog found widespread voter fraud. Yes, correct the problems. But holding U.S. troop reinforcements hostage isn't the way to do it. Elections aren't why we have troops in that country. They're...

The United States will deploy ground-to-air Patriot missiles in Poland in 2010 and is discussing its plans for a new anti-missile system with Warsaw, a US defence official said Friday. "We presented some detailed information on how the rotations of our Patriot batteries would be conducted over the next few years under the August 2008 agreement" with Poland, US Assistant Secretary of Defence for International Security Alexander Vershbow said in Warsaw. "We look forward to the commencement of those rotations next year," Vershbow said following talks with Poland's Deputy Defence Minister Stanislaw Komorowski Friday ahead of next week's visit by...

Eight years into the war in Afghanistan: the most senior defence official running the conflict receives a letter from one of his officers. It is a depressing list of political and tactical failures. "We should honestly admit," he writes, "that our efforts over the last eight years have not led to the expected results. Huge material resources and considerable casualties did not produce a positive end result – stabilisation of military-political situation in the country. The protracted character of the military struggle and the absence of any serious success, which could lead to a breakthrough in the entire strategic situation,...

Note: The following news brief is a quote: Turkey Arrests 50 Suspected al-Qaida-Linked Militants By VOA News 15 October 2009 Turkish police have detained at least 50 suspected al-Qaida-linked militants in raids across nine provinces. Local media say the militants, thought to be members of a group (the Islamic Jihad League) tied to al-Qaida, were planning attacks against U.S., Israeli and NATO targets in Turkey. They say the suspects may have had contact with al-Qaida's second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahri, and may have been trained in Afghanistan. Turkey's Hurriyet daily says police Thursday seized an unlicensed gun, documents, CDs and laptops during...

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.

REACHING LAST weekend’s diplomatic breakthrough between Turkey and Armenia was not easy. It took six weeks of secret talks in Switzerland, seven last-minute phone calls from Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to the two countries’ foreign ministers, and a wild ride in a Zurich police car, lights flashing and siren shrieking, for a Turkish diplomat carrying a revised draft of the accord. This breakthrough could also be said to have taken 16 years, the length of time the Turkey-Armenia border has been shut, or 94 years, the time that has passed since Ottoman Turkish forces slaughtered hundreds of thousands...

Once the apotheosis of a pro-Western, dependable Muslim democracy, this week Turkey officially left the Western alliance and became a full member of the Iranian axis. It isn't that Ankara's behavior changed fundamentally in recent days. There is nothing new in its massive hostility toward Israel and its effusive solicitousness toward the likes of Syria and Hamas. Since the Islamist AKP party first won control over the Turkish government in the 2002 elections, led by AKP chairman Recip Tayyip Erdogan, the Turks have incrementally and inexorably moved the formerly pro-Western Muslim democracy into the radical Islamist camp populated by the...

KABUL (Reuters) – NATO's top defense officials will examine proposals Saturday for a big troop surge to contain Afghanistan's escalating insurgency but any such move hinges on a decision by the U.S. president, NATO military officials said. The top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, has recommended sending at least 40,000 additional troops and trainers as part of a beefed-up counterinsurgency strategy in Afghanistan, something being considered by the administration of President Barack Obama. Military representatives on NATO's Military Committee, who provide assessments for their political masters, met McChrystal on a three-day visit to Afghanistan that ended...

Italy's secret services have been accused of paying the Taliban thousands of dollars to keep an area in Afghanistan controlled by the Italians safe. Rome was also accused of hushing up the bribes, keeping them secret from Nato allies - meaning that when France took over the same area, Paris misread the security situation there. Shortly afterwards, ten French soldiers were killed in a shock ambush that had massive political repercussions in Paris. Today Italy's defence minister slammed the report, printed in the Times newspaper, as 'rubbish'. Premier Silvio Berlusconi's office called the report 'completely groundless'. The Times reported that...

When ten French soldiers were killed last year in an ambush by Afghan insurgents in what had seemed a relatively peaceful area, the French public were horrified. Their revulsion increased with the news that many of the dead soldiers had been mutilated — and with the publication of photographs showing the militants triumphantly sporting their victims’ flak jackets and weapons. The French had been in charge of the Sarobi area, east of Kabul, for only a month, taking over from the Italians; it was one of the biggest single losses of life by Nato forces in Afghanistan. What the grieving...

Corporal Cristo Ancor Cabello Santana Madrid, Spain, Oct 14, 2009 / 04:35 pm (CNA).- Corporal Cristo Ancor Cabello Santana, the lastest Spanish soldier to die in Afghanistan, fulfilled his wish to be baptized before dying. Cabello had asked the chaplain at the Herat Base to baptize him and was planning on receiving the sacrament last weekend before being wounded in a Taliban attack. The chaplain wanted to use a baptismal shell being sent from Madrid to administer the sacrament, but Cabello told him he already had one from when he made a pilgrimage to Santiago in Spain. The chaplain used...

by Hana Levi Julian and INN TV Follow Israel news on and . (IsraelNN.com) The IDF on Tuesday released video footage of Hizbullah terrorists smuggling missiles and other weaponry out of a warehouse where an explosion occurred Monday in the southern Lebanese town of Tayir Filsay. Lebanese Army soldiers and troops from the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) traveled to the scene, but terrorists had emptied the warehouse by the time they arrived - a secret activity caught on camera by IDF military intelligence.

Germany is set to send 1,200 police to Afghanistan to train local law enforcement in a major boost to its commitment to the war-torn country, news magazine Der Spiegel reported Saturday. An official request for the officers would come in the next week from NATO, the magazine reported, citing sources within the transatlantic alliance. The German officers would be needed for the “NATO Training Mission Afghanistan,” which is due to start in April. Under the program, some 10,000 foreign instructors would train the Afghan security forces as part of a major push by NATO to ready the strife-torn country to...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan has recommended an increase of 40,000 troops as the minimum necessary to prevail, two sources familiar with his recommendations said on Thursday. General Stanley McChrystal also gave President Barack Obama an option of sending more than 40,000 troops, the sources said, which could be politically risky given deep doubts among Obama's fellow Democrats about the eight-year-old war. One of the sources, both of whom spoke on condition that they not be identified because of the sensitivity of talking about recommendations to the president, said McChrystal also gave a third...

One of the worst ideas we have heard recently regarding Afghanistan is to bring in the Russians. NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen suggested that 20 years after the Soviet Union's defeat there, Moscow now might hold the key to victory. "Russia could provide equipment for the Afghan security forces," Mr. Rasmussen said. "Russia could provide training. We could explore in a joint effort how we could further Russian engagement." A moment of clarity is in order.

PARIS — Somali pirates attempted to storm the flagship commanding French military forces in a night attack in the Indian Ocean after mistaking it for a cargo vessel, the military said here on Wednesday. French sailors saw off the attack and captured five pirates in the incident while no-one was injured, military spokesman Admiral Christophe Prazuck said. "The pirates, who because of the darkness took the French ship for a commercial vessel, were on board two vessels and opened fire with Kalashnikovs," he said. The pirates had tried to storm the 160-metre (525-foot) 18,000-tonne La Somme, a fuel supply ship...

KABUL (Reuters) – NATO forces said Tuesday they had killed more that 100 fighters in a huge weekend battle in eastern Afghanistan in which eight Americans died, the deadliest firefight for U.S. troops in more than a year. The revised enemy death toll gives an idea of the scale of the battle, one of the biggest of the eight-year-old war, in which hundreds of fighters armed with machine guns, rifles and rocket-propelled grenades attempted to storm remote outposts. "A more detailed battlefield assessment following the October 3 attack in Nuristan has determined that enemy forces suffered more than 100 dead...

KABUL (AFP) – Over 100 Taliban fighters were killed in a weekend clash that left eight US soldiers dead, NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said Tuesday. "A more detailed battlefield assessment following the October 3 attack in Nuristan has determined that enemy forces suffered more than 100 dead during the well-coordinated defence -- significantly higher losses than originally thought," a statement said. Hundreds of militant fighters on Saturday swept down a remote hillside at dawn near the mountainous border with Pakistan to attack two Afghan army and NATO outposts. The resulting firefight lasted into the night and prompted US...

War On Terror: From Gettysburg to Fallujah, no-nonsense leadership has proved the key to victory in war. President Obama has chosen a new top U.S. commander in Afghanistan. This is Obama's war. This is his general. During the campaign, candidate Barack Obama said Afghanistan was the right place to fight what is now called an overseas contingency operation. At first glance, with his choice of Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal to take over as the top U.S. commander there, he may have picked the right man to fight it. McChrystal is a special ops guru, a former head of the Joint...

~ EXCERPT ~ KABUL — Two more NATO soldiers, including one American, are reported dead in the latest fighting in Afghanistan. A NATO statement says the U.S. soldier died of wounds suffered in an insurgent attack in southern Afghanistan on Sunday. The statement says a second service member died of wounds in a roadside bombing Monday in southern Afghanistan. NATO is not releasing the service member's nationality.

KABUL – Hundreds of insurgents armed with automatic rifles and rocket-propelled grenades stormed a pair of remote outposts near the Pakistan border, killing eight U.S. soldiers and capturing more than 20 Afghan security troops in the deadliest assault against U.S. forces in more than a year, military officials said Sunday. The fierce gunbattle, which erupted at dawn Saturday in the Kamdesh district of mountainous Nuristan province and raged throughout the day, is likely to fuel the debate in Washington over the direction of the troubled eight-year war. It was the heaviest U.S. loss of life in a single battle since...

Ten American troops were killed at the weekend in two surprise attacks that caused alarm in Nato’s US-led coalition. In one, hundreds of insurgents attacked a pair of isolated outposts in eastern Afghanistan, killing eight US soldiers and several Afghan policemen in the deadliest battle in 15 months. Scores more Afghan policemen were reportedly captured by the Taleban. In the other an Afghan policeman opened fire on the American soldiers with whom he was working in central Wardak province, killing two and injuring three. It was unclear whether the policeman was working for the Taleban or simply ran amok but...

Note: The following text is a quote: 01 Oct. 2009 Speech by NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen on emerging security risks, Lloyd's of London Ladies and Gentlemen, Let me begin by thanking Peter Levine for hosting us in this very impressive building. This is my first time here, but it is the second time that NATO and Lloyd’s have come together to discuss emerging security challenges. And while a security Alliance and an insurance market might not seem to have too much in common, another look makes it clear that we do: managing risk. We are both focused on...

Competition for resources in the Arctic Circle could provoke conflict between Russia and Nato, a newly appointed commander at the alliance warned today. Russia has recently been aggressive in its pursuit of claims to parts of the regions and in February sent a submarine to the floor of the sea in order to symbolically plant a flag. In March Russia announced plans to establish military bases along its northern coastline. Admiral James Stavridis said that military activity and trade routes would also both be potential sources of competition around the polar cap. Speaking at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI)...

When President Barack Obama announced plans to alter a planned Eastern European missile defense system, there was a sense that it could lead to a thawing of relations between the United States and Russia. Abandoning a missile system planned for Poland and the Czech Republic – one that “Russia had denounced as a threat to its security and an obstacle in START talks” (The Washington Post) – might lead, according to The Post, to “smoother talks between the two nuclear giants on renegotiating their most important arms-reduction treaty.” There was cautious optimism in Russia, among NATO officials and in the...

Top US military leaders have stated their support for the current strategy in Afghanistan. The commander of the NATO-led mission in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, the head of the regional Central Command, General David Petraeus, and the top US military officer, Admiral Mike Mullen, have endorsed the counter-insurgency strategy now being carried out in the Afghan war. The three officers were part of a review of war strategy at the White House on Wednesday, to give advice to President Barack Obama who has to decide whether to send more troops to Afghanistan. The Pentagon has said the leaders prefer the...

Hundreds of soldiers from the Black Watch have destroyed a Taleban stronghold after uncovering a network of tunnels that concealed bomb factories, the Ministry of Defence said. About 500 soldiers, including members of the Afghan National Army and Canadian experts, swooped into Howz-e-Maded in the Zhari district of Kandahar province in three waves of six Chinook helicopters.

WASHINGTON (AFP) – US President Barack Obama said Tuesday the war in Afghanistan was not purely an "American battle" but was a broader NATO mission, as he met the western alliance's chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen. "This is not a American battle, this is a NATO mission," Obama told reporters after the Oval Office meeting, which comes as he launches a series of intense talks on whether to send more US soldiers to the Afghan war. "We are working actively and diligently to consult with NATO at every step of the way," Obama said. NATO Secretary-General Rasmussen put on a united...

NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen assured U.S. President Barack Obama on Tuesday the alliance would remain in Afghanistan as long as it took to finish its mission. "Our operation in Afghanistan is not America's responsibility or burden alone: it is and it will remain a team effort," the former Danish prime minister told reporters during a visit with Obama at the White House.

President Barack Obama and NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen approach their chairs to make remarks to the media at the conclusion of their meeting, Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2009, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington.

Ayman al Zawahiri, al Qaeda's second in command, has sung the praises of former Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud on a videotape produced by As Sahab and distributed on jihadi forums. Zawahiri used Baitullah's death to praise the Taliban's fight against NATO and the US in Afghanistan. But Zawahiri especially focused on Baitullah's role in the attempt to smash the Pakistani state. The following translation is a portion of Zawahiri's tape: Read more: http://www.longwarjournal.org/threat-matrix/archives/2009/09/zawahiri_eulogizes_baitullah_m.php