Middle East, Afghanistan | featured news

Blake Hounshell says Romney may criticize Obama's Afghanistan approach, but his is much the same for a conflict that is intractable and a pull-out that is inevitable

Afghan security forces on Saturday arrested five insurgents suspected of planning massive attacks on crowded areas of the capital Kabul, an intelligence spokesman said.

American support for a U.S. troop presence in Afghanistan continues to erode rapidly and has now hit a new low, according to a poll from the Pew Research Center in Washington.

Already tense U.S. and NATO ties with Afghanistan were dealt another blow on Wednesday with photographs appearing in an American newspaper of U.S. soldiers posing with the maimed bodies of dead Afghan insurgents.

Gunmen launched multiple attacks in the Afghan capital Kabul on Sunday, assaulting Western embassies in the heavily guarded, central diplomatic area and at the parliament in the west.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Thursday said he was considering bringing forward by a year the presidential election set for 2014 to reduce the pressure on the conflict-plagued country during the period when majority of NATO coalition troops are scheduled to withdraw.

Staff Sgt. Robert Bales will be charged with 17 counts of murder and six counts of assault and attempted murder in connection with the massacre, a senior U.S. defense official tells NBC News.

The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan said Thursday that he believes there should be no American troop drawdowns in 2013, leaving the total at the 68,000 that will remain following scheduled withdrawals this year.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Friday accused the United States of failing to fully cooperate with an investigation into the massacre of 16 Afghan villagers by a U.S. staff sergeant and questioned whether only one soldier could have been involved.

Prospects for an orderly withdrawal of NATO forces from Afghanistan suffered two blows on Thursday, as President Hamid Karzai demanded that American troops be confined to major bases by next year.