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Duke Field Airmen from the 711th Special Operations Squadron dropped the last operational Bomb Live Unit-82 from an MC-130E Combat Talon I July 15 at the Utah Test and Training Range. Nicknamed "Commando Vault" in Vietnam and "Daisy Cutter" in Afghanistan, the BLU-82 is a 15,000-pound bomb, and because of its size, the bomb was dropped by parachute from the aircraft. "We in the Air Force Reserve Command feel fortunate to have been chosen to drop the last operational Daisy Cutter," said Col. Jon Weeks, the 919th Special Operations Wing vice commander and mission commander on the drop. "Our people...

THE Taliban were in disarray last night after their Helmand province leader surrendered — fearing the SBS was about to kill him.

WASHINGTON, July 20, 2008 – An undetermined number of enemy fighters were killed today in separate air strikes in Afghanistan, with one of the engagements prompting an investigation into reports that Afghan National Police officers were killed. Combined Joint Task Force 101 officials said they’ve launched an investigation into an incident in which a combined U.S.-Afghan patrol came under attack by a “non-uniformed hostile force” early this morning in the Ana Dara district of western Afghanistan’s Farah province. The combined patrol signaled their status as coalition forces, but continued to receive fire, officials said. Coalition forces then returned small-arms fire...

KABUL (Reuters) - Presidential hopeful Barack Obama called the situation in Afghanistan "precarious and urgent" on Sunday and said Washington should start planning to transfer more troops there from Iraq. The Illinois Democrat spoke from Afghanistan on the CBS program "Face the Nation" after meeting privately with Afghan President Hamid Karzai on an overseas trip meant to bolster his foreign policy credentials. "We have to understand that the situation is precarious and urgent here in Afghanistan and I believe this has to be the central focus, the central front, in our battle against terrorism," Obama said.

Everything was on fire. The trucks. The bazaar. The grass. It looked surreal. It looked like a movie. That was what Spc. Tyler Stafford remembered thinking as he stepped onto the medical evacuation helicopter. The 23-year-old soldier would have been loaded onto the bird, but the poncho that was hastily employed as his stretcher broke. His body speckled with grenade and RPG shrapnel, the Vicenza, Italy, infantryman walked the last few feet to the waiting Black Hawk. That was Sunday morning in eastern Afghanistan’s Kunar province. At a forward operating base — maybe as big as a football field —...

173rd’s fight not symbol of more violent Afghanistan, says Preysler "The sky is not falling," Col. Charles "Chip" Preysler, commander of the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team, said Saturday from Jalalabad, Afghanistan. Preysler spoke via telephone less than a week after his paratroops and their Afghan allies were involved in a fierce attack at a small post near the village of Wanat. In the July 13 battle, nine of his men were killed and 15 others wounded. But the attack is not a sign of conditions worsening in the country, he said. The battle occurred just after dawn at a...

NORFOLKAs doctors removed pieces of shrapnel from his body Friday, Staff Sgt. Jesse Queck was piecing together accounts of the attack that killed nine of his comrades in Afghanistan earlier this week.Queck, who grew up in Eastville and Cheriton on Virginia's Eastern Shore, is recovering from combat injuries at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany.He is one of about a dozen injured soldiers from the 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment (Airborne), 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team.The battle Sunday involved an estimated 200 Taliban insurgents coordinating a large-scale attack on an unfinished mountain outpost near the Pakistani border.About 45 U.S. soldiers...

WASHINGTON, July 18, 2008 – Pentagon planners are studying ways to get more U.S. troops to Afghanistan quickly. “We're constantly reviewing troop needs, troop levels,” President Bush said during a July 2 news conference. “We're halfway through 2008; as I said, we're going to increase troops by 2009.” U.S. and international leaders agree on the need for more troops in Afghanistan. A statement released at the end of the NATO Summit in Bucharest in April stressed the need for allies to provide troops needed in Afghanistan. The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan has unmet requirements for more forces,...

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Two top Pentagon officials said Wednesday that they expect to be able to recommend troops cuts in Iraq this fall and will try to increase troops in Afghanistan. Adm. Mike Mullen, right, and Defense Secretary Robert Gates speak at the Pentagon on Wednesday. The remarks came after U.S. soldiers were killed Sunday in the deadliest firefight in Afghanistan in recent years. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said he had ruled out extending the deployment of U.S. forces in Afghanistan or making tours longer than 15 months, leaving few options other than shifting troops who were destined for...

WASHINGTON, July 16, 2008 – Commanders in Afghanistan have asked for more of the mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicles the military calls “MRAPs,” the Pentagon’s press secretary said today. There are roughly 800 MRAPs in Afghanistan. “It’s safe to say that commanders are interested” in more of the vehicles, Geoff Morrell told reporters. Though the request is unofficial so far, it was relayed by Army Maj. Gen. Jeffrey J. Schloesser, commander of Combined Task Force 101 at Bagram Airfield to Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Navy Adm. Mike Mullen during the chairman’s recent visit to Afghanistan. Part of the request may be...

US troops in Afghanistan massed close to the border yesterday for a possible attack on al-Qaeda and Taleban bases in the lawless North Waziristan tribal belt in Pakistan. Reports from the area said that hundreds of Nato troops were airlifted across the mountains from the village of Lowara Mandi, which has been an important base for cross-border attacks in Afghanistan. Heavy artillery and armoured vehicles were also being moved into position. The deployment followed a claim by the Afghan Government on Monday that the Pakistani Army and its spy agency had become “the world's biggest producers of terrorism and extremism”....

LAKE CITY - Spc. Jason Dean Hovater was much more than a soldier stationed in an outpost in Afghanistan near the Pakistan border. "He was a brother and a son and a husband,'' said Hovater's sister, Jessica Davis of Norris. "Most of all, he was a man of God. He was a light to other people around him." Hovater, a Clinton resident, was one of nine soldiers killed last weekend in the deadliest assault in Afghanistan against the U.S. military in three years. Some 200 militants with machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades and mortars attacked the outpost but were beaten back...

ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico (Reuters) - Republican presidential hopeful John McCain sharply criticized the flagging U.S. war effort in Afghanistan on Tuesday and vowed to turn it around if elected, starting with sending more U.S. troops. "That's no way to run a war," said McCain, complaining that security in Afghanistan has deteriorated and the status quo is not acceptable. McCain waded into the debate over what to do in Afghanistan, a war begun after the September 11 attacks that Democrats charge has been neglected by the Bush administration as it concentrates on Iraq. An attack on a U.S. base near the...

Taliban Flexing Muscle in Afghanistan Fighters Staged Notable Attack from Pakistan that Left U.S. Soldiers Dead By LUIS MARTINEZ WASHINGTON, JULY 14, 2008 This weekend's deadly attack on an American combat outpost in remote eastern Afghanistan that killed nine U.S. servicemen was a highly organized assault by as many as 200 Taliban fighters that coalition military officials believe was staged from neighboring Pakistan. A senior Defense Department official told ABC News today that attacks on outposts in eastern Afghanistan are a tactic often used by Taliban militants, but that this attack was noteworthy for its significant discipline, training and size...

WASHINGTON — Senator McCain will announce plans today for an Iraq-style "surge" of troops in Afghanistan. An adviser to the campaign told The New York Sun that, in a speech to be delivered in Albuquerque, N.M., the senator will call for an increase in combat troops and the creation of a special Afghanistan tsar to coordinate policy toward the country. "There will be a surge for Afghanistan. It will be moving combat troops in and applying the lessons from Iraq and the strategy that was successful in Iraq and taking that to Afghanistan," this official said.

Last week my wife and I traveled to Fort Hood, Texas to see our youngest son, 1st Lt. Christopher B. Lee, leave with his unit for a 15-month combat tour to Afghanistan. We visited him and his wife, Katie, and our eight-month-old granddaughter Avary, at their military-provided duplex housing on the fort located in Central Texas. Chris’s unit, 1st Battalion of the 26 Infantry Brigade of the 1st Infantry Division (The Big Red One), just missed the Pentagon’s policy change of combat tours from 15 to 12 months, by two weeks. If he had been deployed on or after August...

....says Washington Post. There are a large number of "depending on" qualifiers and so this is by no means a done deal. In any case, the military has no plan to send additional troops to Afghanistan till next years. If this happens, three brigades slated for Iraq in 2009 will retrain for Afghanistan. So why are we not happy? Haven't we been yelling and screaming for more troops for Afghanistan? We are not happy for two good reasons. First, the US has an absolute shortage of combat brigades. That three may go to Afghanistan and not Iraq changes nothing: the...

KABUL, Afghanistan, July 13 — Taliban insurgents mounted a large-scale attack on an American forward operating base in eastern Afghanistan in the early hours of Sunday, killing nine American soldiers in fierce fighting that continued through the day. Mark Laity, a spokesman for NATO, confirmed that nine soldiers had been killed and 15 more wounded, but did not give their nationality. Separately, a senior American military official confirmed that the nine soldiers killed were Americans. Four Afghan soldiers also were wounded, Mr. Laity said. The Taliban assault on the base was the deadliest single attack on the NATO security force...

Both the United States and Britain are hoping to reduce their military commitment in Iraq to focus on Afghanistan. The US is considering cutting American troop numbers to below 120,000, compared with 170,000 last year. Up to three combat brigades could be withdrawn in September. Britain is also looking to cut troop numbers by almost a half in Iraq, from 4,000 to about 2,500, although not until next year. This would give the Government the option of deploying more units to Helmand province, where the Taleban has intensified its operations, using suicide attacks, roadside bombs and mines. More American and...

WASHINGTON, July 13, 2008 – at least 40 insurgents during an ongoing operation in Afghanistan’s Helmand province yesterday, military officials said. The fight began when insurgent forces attacked an Afghan and coalition security patrol yesterday in Sangin district. From multiple concealed and fortified positions, the insurgents used small-arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades. The ensuing fight led the combined forces to return fire and call for precision air strikes. The friendly forces destroyed four insurgent fortified fighting positions, two bunkers, two trench lines, one improvised-explosive-device site, and more than 30 enemy boats, officials said. Elsewhere, Afghan and coalition forces killed several...

At least eight US soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan in clashes with Taleban militants. US commander Daniel Dwyer told the BBC the soldiers had been killed in clashes in the north-east of the country. The BBC's Martin Patience in Kabul says it is one of the biggest single losses in a day for the coalition since the start of military operations there. The attack came as international and Afghan security forces battled militants on several fronts. On Sunday, US forces said 40 insurgents had been killed in Helmand province in the past 24 hours. There are conflicting reports as...

Forget spoilt footballers and minor Royals. Yesterday, Miss Michelle Clifford married Lance-Corporal Martyn Compton. And the terrible injuries he suffered in Afghanistan could not diminish the towering, inspirational love they share The walk down the aisle yesterday was only a matter of yards. Yet for Martyn Compton it meant everything. Indeed, his determination to make the distance was matched only by that of the beautiful young woman he was about to marry. And when he falteringly held out his hand for her to slip the gold ring on his finger, they both finally fulfilled the dream they had fought desperately...

KORENGAL VALLEY, Afghanistan, July 12, 2008 – The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff yesterday took the opportunity to present 12 paratroopers with awards here for valorous and heroic achievements in combat. Navy Adm. Mike Mullen pinned five Army Commendation Medals with valor devices, five Purple Heart Medals, one Bronze Star with valor device, and one Silver Star on the troopers’ chests during a ceremony at their combat outpost here. “It’s an honor and privilege to be here,” Mullen said to the awardees. “This ceremony is about individuals who represent the sacrifice of so many.” The paratroopers are assigned...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama said in a new interview Friday that the Afghan government of President Hamid Karzai had not got out of a "bunker" to rebuild the war-torn country. Obama also said in the interview with CNN to be broadcast in full this weekend that the Bush administration had allowed Al-Qaeda and the Taliban to regroup, by diverting vital US forces to the war in Iraq. "I think the Karzai government has not gotten out of the bunker and helped to organize Afghanistan and (the) government, the judiciary, police forces, in ways that would give...

THE Australian commando killed by a bomb in Afghanistan overnight has been remembered for his humour, integrity and dedication as a soldier. Signaller Sean McCarthy, 25, a member of the Perth-based Special Air Service Regiment, was killed yesterday when his vehicle struck a roadside bomb in Kunar province, on the border with Pakistan. Two other commandos were injured in the attack. Signaller McCarthy is the sixth Australian soldier to die in Afghanistan since 2002, and the second this year. Kevin Rudd, who is attending the G8 summit in Japan, described the death as a “terrible loss to his family, the...

KABUL (AFP) — More than 400 militants have been killed in a 10-week-old operation led by US Marines in a remote district of southern Afghanistan but fighters remain in the area, a commander said Wednesday. Marines and British troops under NATO command in late April launched the operation in Garmser district, a desert area on the border with Pakistan described as an insurgent "logistics hub" and key opium-producing centre. Citing figures from Helmand province governor Gulab Mangal, the Marine commanding officer in Afghanistan told reporters in Kabul that more than 400 Taliban-linked rebels had been killed.

The Department of Defense announced today the death of four Marines who were supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. Sgt. Michael Toussiant-Hyle Washington, 20, of Tacoma, Wash. Lance Cpl. Layton Bradly Crass, 22, of Richmond, In. Pfc. Dawid Pietrek, 24, of Bensenville, Ill. Pfc. Michael Robert Patton, 19, of Fenton, Mo. All four Marines died June 14 while supporting combat operations in Farah Province, Afghanistan. They were assigned to 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Twentynine Palms, Calif. Requesting prayer for the family, friends, and loved ones of Sgt. Michael Toussiant-Hyle Washington, 20, of Tacoma, Wash. Requesting...

News ReleaseOne Canadian Soldier Dies in AfghanistanCEFCOM NR–08.026 - July 7, 2008OTTAWA – At approximately 12:50 a.m., Kandahar time, on July 5, a Canadian soldier suffered critical injuries and later died when an explosive device detonated near a dismounted security patrol in Panjwayi District. The fallen soldier is Private Colin William Wilmot, a medic serving with the Health Services Support Unit in Afghanistan attached to 2nd Battalion, Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry Battle Group. His home unit was 1 Field Ambulance, based in Edmonton, Alberta. First-aid was administered to Private Wilmot immediately following the explosion. He was evacuated by helicopter...

WASHINGTON, July 2, 2008 – Defense Department officials are very concerned about the situation in Afghanistan, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said here today. “Violence is up significantly from a year ago,” Navy Adm. Mike Mullen said during a Pentagon news conference. For the second month in a row, more coalition servicemembers died in Afghanistan than died in Iraq. Given the country’s harsh winters and unforgiving terrain, summer historically is the fighting season in Afghanistan, but the Taliban have become more organized and efficient, Mullen said. But part of the increase in violence is because there are...

Afghan, U.S. troops kill 32 Taliban in clashes Sat Jun 28, 1:00 PM ET Afghan and U.S.-led coalition troops killed 32 Taliban militants in southern Afghanistan, including some who dressed as women in an attempt to escape, the U.S. military said on Saturday. The Taliban opened fire with small arms and rocket-propelled grenades on a patrol of Afghan security forces and coalition troops in Uruzgan province on Thursday, the U.S. military said in a statement.

The fanatical Taliban mastermind behind recent attacks in which six British soldiers died in Afghanistan has been killed in a missile attack by an Army Apache helicopter. In what military chiefs described as a 'deliberate and surgical strike', the 35-year-old rebel leader - known as Sadiqullah - died alongside nine fellow Taliban fighters after the Apache fired two laser-guided Hellfire missiles at their red pick-up truck and destroyed it. The rebel leader had been tracked down after weeks of secret intelligence work. His death would have been instantaneous, as the warheads of the 5ft-long missiles, which travel at 950mph, are...

KABUL (AFP) - Afghan and US-led coalition forces killed 32 Taliban-linked militants in fighting in southern Afghanistan, the coalition said Saturday. The rebels were slain after attacking the forces patrolling in southern Uruzgan province's Khas Uruzgan district on Thursday, the statement said. "A total of 32 militants were killed by Afghan National Security Forces and coalition forces in two separate engagements in the Khas Oruzgan District, the statement added. A 10-year-old Afghan child and two Afghan national policemen were wounded during the battle, it added, without giving details on how the child was hurt. The attack, the latest in an...

WASHINGTON, June 27, 2008 – The 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines are disrupting the Taliban’s freedom of movement in Afghanistan’s Helmand and Farah provinces, the battalion’s commander said today. “We expected that we were going to experience a lot of friction by the enemy,” Marine Corps Lt. Col. Richard D. Hall told online journalists and bloggers in a teleconference, noting that until the 1st Marine Division unit arrived, Taliban operatives and other militants could operate as they pleased. “We’re disrupting that, and they don’t like it,” Hall said, “so they’ve been trying to come after us because of that.” He praised...

A British soldier was killed and two others injured when a vehicle they were travelling in rolled over while on patrol in southern Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence said on Saturday. "The vehicle had been part of a patrol, conducting force protection when the incident occurred. The incident was not combat-related," said the MOD in statement. The three soldiers, who were from the 13 Air Assault Support Regiment Royal Logistic Corps, were evacuated to NATO's International Security Assistance Force's medical facilities at Camp Bastion... ...The death in Helmand province brings to 109 the number of British troops killed since U.S.-led...

05/15/07 -- FAYETTEVILLE) (WTVD) -- 82nd Airborne Division Paratrooper, Major Larry Bauguess of Moravian auguess graduateFalls, N.C. died from injuries sustained from enemy small arms fire in Pakistan Monday. The 36-year-old was the operation officer for the 4th Brigade Combat Team's Special Troops Battalion. Bauguess graduated from Appalachian State University in 1993. Public Family Statement by Mrs. Wesley Bauguess An 82nd Airborne Division Paratrooper died from injuries sustained from enemy small arms fire, in Teri Mengel, Pakistan Monday. Maj. Larry J. Bauguess, Jr., 36, of Moravian Falls, N.C., was the Operations Officer for the 4th Brigade Combat Team's Special Troops...

(CNSNews.com) - Progress in Iraq has been so substantial that by the end of this year, the U.S. may be able withdraw forces from Iraq to support its troops in Afghanistan, where violence has been rising, Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters Monday. "I am hopeful that if the turnaround in Iraq continues as it has in recent months, then we will be able to create some additional force [in Afghanistan] at the same time that we are growing the Army and the Marine Corps," he said at a Pentagon news briefing. "Through that...

KABUL (Reuters) - U.S.-led coalition troops killed some 55 Taliban insurgents who ambushed them in southeastern Afghanistan, close to the Pakistan border, the U.S. military said on Monday. There has been a sharp rise in violence along Afghanistan's eastern frontier in recent months. NATO generals say de-facto ceasefires between Pakistan's new government and militants in its border region free up insurgents to infiltrate into Afghanistan. Taliban insurgents ambushed the coalition forces with small arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades in the Zerok district of Paktika province on Friday, a U.S. military statement said. Among those killed were three Taliban leaders. "Around...

ARGHANDAB DISTRICT, Afghanistan -- Hundreds of Taliban fighters have been killed or wounded after two days of fierce fighting over a strategic area just northwest of Kandahar City that insurgents had taken over at the start of the week. By Thursday, all that remained was the mopping up of small scattered pockets of resistance, jubilant political leaders and Afghan and Canadian military commanders told reporters from a mountainside perch overlooking the entire battlefield in a wide river valley. "This will give them a good lesson," Kandahar Gov. Asadullah Khalid said, referring to Taliban insurgents. Mr. Khalid said residents who had...

Reports that suggest the Taliban have gained a footing in Afghanistan’s Kandahar province are “way overblown,” a Pentagon spokesman said today. Press Secretary Geoff Morrell told reporters at a news conference that although an increased Taliban presence has been detected in the province, patrols conducted by Afghan National Police and coalition forces “found no evidence that militants control the area.” Press reports from the region said the Taliban had taken seven villages in the area and were poised for an attack on the city of Kandahar. “While in the area, coalition forces moved freely and met no resistance,” Morrell said....

WASHINGTON, June 16, 2008 – Afghan and coalition forces killed 35 insurgents during operations yesterday and June 14, military officials said. Afghan national security forces and coalition forces killed 20 militants who attacked a combined reconnaissance patrol in the Deh Chopan district of Afghanistan’s Zabul province yesterday. Officials said the militants attacked the combined forces with rockets, mortars and small-arms fire in a mountainous river valley. Afghan and coalition forces returned fire and called in precision aircraft strikes to kill the militants. During a June 14 operation, 15 insurgents were killed after they attacked a combined Afghan and coalition patrol...

WASHINGTON, June 16, 2008 – The United Kingdom will increase the number of troops it contributes to the coalition effort in Afghanistan, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced today. Brown made the announcement during a joint news conference with President Bush in London. The two leaders also discussed a range of issues, including Iraq and Iran. “We have resolved, first of all, as we did some years ago, that it is in the British national interest to confront the Taliban in Afghanistan or Afghanistan would come to us,” Brown said. “And so today, Britain will announce additional troops for...

In the wake of the U.S. Air Force leadership shake up, Defense Secretary Robert Gates is directing the service to field six more Predator combat air patrols (CAPs), as well as more Reapers to support operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. The order comes shortly after Gates’ first briefing from the new Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) Task Force June 6. He set up the task force in April, explaining during a speech at Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala., that getting warfighting support from institutional military — namely, the Air Force — was “like pulling teeth.” A lack of support for...

More British troops are to be sent to Afghanistan, the Government will announce next week. The Daily Telegraph has learned that reinforcements are being deployed as British forces face fierce resistance from the Taliban and doubts grow about the West's strategy in Afghanistan. Five men from the Parachute Regiment have been killed in Afghanistan this week, taking the British death toll in the country to 102. Britain has 7,800 troops in Afghanistan and Des Browne, the defence secretary, will tell MPs on Monday that at least 200 more are being deployed. Article continues advertisement The increase will take British numbers...

WASHINGTON, June 13, 2008 – The current number of forces in Afghanistan is enough to accomplish the mission, but it’ll take awhile to do so, the U.S. officer who just finished his tour as commander of NATO troops in Afghanistan said here today. “Let’s just say that somebody waved a magic wand, and by gosh, between the Afghans and the international force you’d produced a force that was well over 400,000,” Army Gen. Dan K. McNeill said to reporters at a Pentagon news conference. That larger force, McNeill said, likely would produce “instant quiet” across much of Afghanistan. Yet, “in...

War On Terror: America's top military official has just returned from Pakistan with a sobering prediction: The next attack on the U.S. will likely originate from within Pakistan, our strategic ally.Pakistan is not our enemy, yet our enemy is operating safely from within its borders, concludes Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. And there's not much we can do about it under the current political arrangement. In Pakistan's western tribal regions, known as the FATA, al-Qaida's central command has set up its most secure base since the fall of the Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan, Mullen says....

BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan, June 9, 2008 – First Lady Laura Bush visited troops here yesterday during a brief stop on her third trip to Afghanistan, giving words of praise and encouragement to servicemembers for their efforts and results. First Lady Laura Bush visits servicemembers at Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan, to thank them for their efforts, June 8, 2008. U.S. Army photo by Pfc. Christina Sinders  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. “From overseeing hospitals to responding to [improvised explosive devices], your efforts are critical to our mission in Afghanistan,” Bush said. “On behalf of President Bush and a...

Bamiyan, Afghanistan -- Urging the world to "stand more strongly with Afghanistan," First Lady Laura Bush visited remote Bamiyan province, where the Taliban regime prompted international outrage by destroying two giant Buddhist statues in 2001. "We have seen a resurgence of Taliban and Al Qaeda killings and kidnappings in Afghanistan," Mrs. Bush told ABC News in an exclusive interview aboard the Air Force jet she flew from Washington to Afghanistan: "I don't want people to think it means we need to give up. I think it just means we really need to stand more strongly with Afghanistan." Mrs. Bush has...

An airstrike has killed at least 20 militants in eastern Afghanistan, officials said Friday. Capt. Christian Patterson, a U.S.-led coalition spokesman, said the airstrike occurred Thursday in Paktika province, which borders Pakistan. He said 20 militants were killed, but provided no details. Afghan officials said coalition aircraft attacked a band of insurgents in Orgun, a district close to the Pakistani border where U.S. troops have a base, after dark Thursday evening. Provincial police Chief Gen. Nabi Mullakhel said surviving insurgents removed the bodies from the scene. He said villagers reported that 32 militants died. Ghamai Mohammed Yar, a spokesman for...

KABUL (Reuters) - Taliban insurgents are fleeing south towards the Afghan border with Pakistan in the face of a U.S. Marines offensive in volatile Helmand province, the NATO commander in Afghanistan said on Monday. U.S. Marines have been pushing south from the former Taliban stronghold of Garmsir in Helmand for a month in an operation meant to cut off insurgent infiltration routes from Pakistan. "They have shown under some amount of pressure they flee to their sanctuaries," General Dan McNeill told a news conference. "In the last two days we have had many reports ... that the insurgents after experiencing...

How odd (or to be expected) that suddenly intelligence agencies, analysts, journalists, and terrorists themselves are attesting that al-Qaeda is in near ruins, that ideologically radical Islam is losing its appeal, and that terrorist incidents against Americans at home and abroad outside the war zones are at an all-time low—and yet few associate the radical change in fortune in Iraq as a contributory cause to our success. But surely the US military contributed a great deal to the humiliation of al-Qaedists and the bankruptcy of their cause, since it has (1) killed thousands of generic jihadists, and to such a...