Afghanistan, Wars | featured news

The top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan said on Thursday the security situation there remained serious but was not deteriorating, giving a more upbeat view than from other U.S. military and intelligence officials.

CAMP LEATHERNECK, Afghanistan (Reuters) - The biggest military operation of U.S.

Explosive ordnance disposal troop commander Lt. Caroline Pollock squats by a culvert on a dusty training ground and looks at what appears to be a pile of harmless junk. A plastic jug. Some metal casing. Wiring. All the makings of deadly roadside bombs.

After explosions and gun battles rock Kabul for three hours, President Karzai says order is restored. The attack is launched on the day that confirmed Cabinet members are sworn in.

KABUL — Taliban militants struck in the heart of the Afghan capital today, launching suicide attacks on key government targets in a clear sign the insurgents plan to escalate their fight as the U.S. and its allies ramp up a campaign to end the war.

For most of the past year, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top American military commander in Afghanistan, described the situation in the war torn nation “as serious and deteriorating.”

The Turkish wife of a Jordanian doctor who killed seven CIA employees in a suicide attack in Afghanistan says her husband was outraged over the treatment of Iraqis at Abu Ghraib prison and the U.S.-led invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan....

The Pakistani Taliban claims they used a turncoat CIA operative for the suicide bombing that killed seven CIA employees in Afghanistan as revenge for a militant leader's death.

The year's tally was 319, compared with 155 in 2008, due mostly to the crude but ever larger and deadlier roadside bombs built by the Taliban.

The Afghan Taliban said on Friday that they had issued a new video tape of a U.S. soldier who was captured this summer, and added that in it he asks his government to take part in a prisoner exchange deal.

The U.S. Senate approved a $636 billion military spending bill on Saturday that funds the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and also includes money to extend jobless aid and Medicare payment rates for two months.