Afghan officer fires on NATO troops, kills several

A veteran Afghan military officer opened fire on foreign forces Wednesday after a dispute at the Kabul airport, killing several NATO troops, Afghan and coalition officials said.

It was the newest in a spate of deadly occurrences that have happened inside government or military installations, a preferred target of Taliban rebellious.

The Taliban claimed blame for the attack, other than Defense Ministry spokesman Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi said the gunman was an Afghan military pilot who "open fire on foreigners after a disagreement."

The pilot was killed in the shooting, which happened inside a flair used by the Afghan Air Force, Azimi said. NATO did not make known the number or nationalities of the casualties pending announcement of their families. The airport is home to the NATO Air Training Command.

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Taliban break more than 450 out of Afghan prison

Taliban militants dug a drawn out tunnel subversive and into the main jail in Kandahar city and whisked out more than 450 prisoners, the majority of whom were Taliban fighters, officials and rebellious said Monday.

The immense overnight jailbreak in Afghanistan's second-largest city underscores the Afghan government's lifelong weak point in the south despite an influx of international troops, funding and advisers. Kandahar city, in particular, has been a focus of the worldwide shot to establish a strong Afghan government existence in former Taliban strongholds.

The 1,200-inmate Sarposa Prison has been part of that plan. The ability has undergone security upgrades and makes tighter procedures following a brazen 2008 Taliban assault that freed 900 prisoners. Afghan government officials and their NATO backers have frequently said that the prison has vastly enhanced security since that attack.

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US soldier gets 24 years for murders of 3 Afghans

A U.S. soldier who pleaded responsible Wednesday to the murders of three Afghan civilians was sentence to 24 years in jail after saying "the plan was to kill people" in a scheme with four fellow soldiers.

Military moderator Lt. Col. Kwasi Hawks said he initially intended to verdict Spc. Jeremy Morlock to life in prison with option of parole but was jump by the plea deal.

Morlock, the first of five soldiers from the 5th Stryker Brigade to be court-martialed in the holder, will receive 352 days off of his decree for time served and could be qualified for parole in about seven years, said his lead lawyer, Frank Spinner. He will be ignobly discharged as part of his decree.

The 22-year-old Morlock is a key form in a war crimes probe that has raised some of the most serious unlawful claims to come from the war in Afghanistan. Army investigators accuse him of taking a lead role in the killings of three unarmed Afghan men in Kandahar prefecture in January, February and May 2010.

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Afghan, NATO forces brace for spring offensive

Afghanistan – Ten loud bangs that rocked Kandahar one day last week actually signal good news on the front line of the war next to the Taliban.

The explosions one each 30 minutes from 10 a.m. awaiting 2:30 p.m. Were from Afghan and grouping forces blowing up more than 6,000 pounds of Taliban AK-47s, bomb-making tackle, homemade concerned and rocket-propelled grenades.

Finding and tear down the insurgents' weapons in Kandahar prefecture, the family home of President Hamid Karzai and the origin of the Taliban, is just one way Afghan and coalition forces are tiresome to make it hard for the militants to launch a burly unpleasant in the spring.

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Let's Un-Surge in Afghanistan

The Obama management has finished its third appraisal in two years of U.S. policy toward Afghanistan and Pakistan. It quarrel the current move toward is making progress, with achievement defined as building up Afghan national army and police forces until they can hold their own alongside a Taliban that is being weakened by continuing combat. Some officials also believe that quite a few more years of military heaviness will persuade many Taliban fighters to switch sides somewhat than fight.

There is good reason to be skeptical. While the situation on the ground in Afghanistan should improve in areas where U.S. military forces are in commission in strength, the gains are likely to fade in the wake of their going away. The intrinsic weakness of central government institutions in Afghanistan, the tenacity of the Taliban and their ties to Afghanistan's many Pashtuns, and the actuality that the Taliban will keep on to take pleasure in a sanctuary in neighboring Pakistan all work touching what we seek to achieve.

It is probable that doubters will be established wrong. But the more primary problem with the policy depends less on its prospects than its costs and reimbursement. What the United States is doing in Afghanistan is not necessary even if the policy succeed.

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Afghan, coalition forces target Kandahar attack network facilitator

Afghanistan – Afghan and coalition armed forces detained more than a few suspects as they targeted a Taliban ad hoc explosive device launch pad during a security operation in Kandahar region Dec. 15.

Cleverness reports point to the targeted person has ties to the Zharay IED network. He collects and distributes IEDs, weapons and provisions supporting terrorist activities all through multiple areas in Kandahar to comprise Panjwa’i district.

The joint security team under arrest the think after Afghan forces used a loudspeaker to call the inhabitants out of the building quietly before they searched for the human being who operates in the Panjwa’i quarter. The security team under arrest the individuals quietly based on initial puzzled at the picture.

The joint security team conducted the maneuver in the hours of darkness to decrease the risk to local citizens. Nix women or children were distress or detained during this operation.

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Afghan, Coalition Forces Stop Insurgent Attack in Afghanistan

Afghan and alliance forces yesterday disrupted a Taliban plot to carry out suicide bombings in Afghanistan’s Helmand region, military officials reported.

Troops were penetrating for a Taliban leader and suicide-bomb launch pad in the province’s Kajaki district. Insurgent opened fire as the troops approach, and Afghan and coalition forces eventually killed numerous armed insurgent. More than a few of the dead insurgents’ bodies were completely shaved and possessed poems. Official said those individuality among Taliban operatives point to they were planning a suicide attack.

Officials from NATO’s International Security Assistance Force established the identity of a Taliban leader captured Dec. 10 in Khost county. The Taliban leader is reportedly accountable for coordinating attacks on Afghan and coalition troop’s right through the prefecture.

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Taliban suicide bomber kills 6 US and 2 Afghan troops in south

A Taliban suicide bomber killed six US soldiers and two Afghan troops in a suicide attack today that under attack a newly recognized outpost in a region of Kandahar recognized as the "heart of darkness." The Taliban claimed it approved out the attack.

The suicide bomber detonate a minibus packed with explosive at the gate of a small war outpost manned by US and Afghan troops in the town of Sangsar in the district of Zhari in Kandahar county. The suicide bomber was able to get past Afghan soldiers who were manning the outer boundary.

The blast level the wall of a mud-brick home where the US and Afghan troops were building a new base in the village, according to The New York Times. The construction collapsed on the soldiers, killing them and cutting more than a dozen US and Afghan troops.

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Letter to Obama calls for change in Afghan strategy

Academicians, the media and NGO members on Sunday signed a letter addressed to US President Barack Obama, calling for alter in the American policy being implemented in Afghanistan.

In the letter, they told Obama that the cost of the Afghan war was now over $120 billion per year for the US alone, which was untenable in the long run. Notwithstanding these huge costs, the condition on the ground was much worse than a year ago because the Taliban uprising had progressed across the country, they added.

They said with Pakistan’s vigorous hold up for the Taliban it was not pragmatic to bet on an armed solution, totaling that they military campaign was suppressing, close by and temporarily, the symptoms of the disease, but had failed to offer a cure.

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Father-in-law of disfigured Afghan teen arrested

Afghanistan – The father-in-law of a youthful Afghan woman who said her nose and ears were sliced off to chastise her for running away from her violent husband has been arrested, the Afghan heart Ministry said Wednesday.

The woman, Aisha, gain worldwide concentration when she come into view on the Aug. 9 cover of Time periodical.

Beneath orders from a Taliban commandant acting as a judge, she was disfigured last year as penalty for fleeing her husband's home, according to Time's story in August and extra accounts.

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Afghan 'police officer' kills six Nato troops

Six Nato troops in Afghanistan were shot dead during a training work out today by a man wearing a border police uniform, the alliance said.

The happening took place in eastern Afghanistan where the majority of distant forces are from the US. There are no British troops in the region. It is the worst happening involving foreign troops in more than a month.

"An individual in an Afghan edge police uniform turned his weapon against International Security Assistance Forces throughout a training mission today, killing six service members in eastern Afghanistan," the Nato-led force said in a declaration. It said the gunman was then killed in an exchange of shots with other troops.

The gunfire occurred in Pachir Wagam district of eastern Nangarhar province, an Afghan administrator told the linked Press.

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Britain Keeps Silent on Afghan Impostor Claim

Authorities in London suspended a formal response on Friday to a reported accusation by a senior Afghan bureaucrat that the British introduce an impostor posing as a high Taliban chief into the presidential palace in Kabul to meet President Hamid Karzai.

News of the awkward ruse emerged earlier this week in an article in The New York Times saying that a man identify himself as Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Mansour, one of the most senior commanders in the Taliban movement, had held three meetings with NATO and Afghan officials, heartening hopes of a negotiated resolution to the nine-year-old war.

The fake Taliban leader smooth met with President Karzai, after being flown to Kabul on a NATO plane and usher into the presidential palace, officials said told The New York Times.

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Afghanistan releases majority of election results

Afghanistan – Afghanistan's top prosecutor announced a new inquiry Wednesday into accusations of ballot handling, potentially dealing another setback to a fraud-marred parliamentary election just as many had hoped a announcement of final results would allow the country to move on.

The Afghan election commission, in the meantime, certified tallies from 33 of 34 provinces but failed to transport on a promise to provide complete fallout more than two months after the Sept. 18 poll.

The panel said it had not determined what to do about the eastern province of Ghazni, where a host of problems clouded the ballot even after considerable investigations. Other than the delay in the Ghazni results, the winners were unaffected since fraud investigators announced a number of banned candidates earlier this week.

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The Afghan Insurgent Group That Will Not Negotiate

The fresh clamoring over Afghan insurgents' choice to engage in "talks" with the Afghan government has obscured some rather imperative distinctions between who is talking and what the forecast are for those talks.

Two of Afghanistan's most famous insurgent groups, the Quetta Shura Taliban and the Haqqani network are both said to be participate in these "talks."

Other than the two groups are quite distinct, with diverse objectives, ideological sentiments and partnerships with radical Islamic terrorists. These distinctions make any likely deal with the Haqqanis a particularly dubious proposal.

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Dutch left Australian soldiers for dead in Afghanistan

AUSTRALIAN Special Forces crowds were left for deceased by two Dutch attack helicopters through a deadly ambush in Afghanistan.

When the smoke empty, one American was dead and seven SAS soldiers and two sappers lay badly injured.

A shared Australian, American and Afghan perambulation was under waylaid from up to 150 enemy fighters when the two assault choppers arrived at a nearby American base.

As the troops were pulverized by enemy mortar, small arms and rocket-propelled shells near the village of Khaz Oruzgan, they thought salvation had at home in the form of the Apache helicopters.

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Civilians killed in Afghan terrorist attacks

Ten people were killed on Wednesday in a terrorist assault in southwestern Afghanistan.

According to a police source, a man-made likely to explode device planted near the road in the Nimruz prefecture, exploded when a car carrying more than a few civilians was passing by.

Two people - a man and his eight-year-old daughter - became wounded of a similar assault in the neighboring Ghazni region, while another three people were killed in a car blast in one of the northwestern province.

According to UN estimates, the Afghan civilian death toll reaches 1,200 in the first half of this year only.

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Afghan peace council chief: Taliban ready to talk

A previous Afghan president who heads a new calm council said Thursday that he's persuaded the Taliban are prepared to negotiate peace.

Burhanuddin Rabbani told reporters in Kabul the Taliban have not totally discarded the idea of negotiating a nonmilitary resolution of the war.

"They have some circumstances to start the negotiations process. It gives us hope that they want to talk and discuss," Rabbani said.

"We are taking our first steps," he said. "I consider there are people among the Taliban that have a message that they want to talk. They are prepared.".

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Seven Nato soldiers die in separate Afghanistan attacks

At smallest amount seven Nato soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan in divide attacks, a day after six alliance troops died in a number of attacks.

Four soldiers were killed in attacks in south and east Afghanistan, while three others were killed in the west.

The killings represent the last two days have been among the bloodiest for intercontinental forces in current months.

In the meantime, the Taliban has deprived of it has had unofficial acquaintances with the Afghan government.

In the latest happening on Thursday, two soldiers were killed in a "insurgent attack" in the south

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Afghan official: Cargo plane crashes near Kabul

A cargo plane crashed into mountain east of Afghanistan's capital Kabul on Tuesday, an Afghan airport bureaucrat said. The plane with a nine-member team was flying from Bagram Air Field when it went down 7 miles (11 kilometers) east of the assets, Kabul Airport Director Yaqob Rasoli told The connected Press.

No in order was immediately obtainable on the fate of the crew, he said. The aircraft was transport supplies for NATO armed forces in the country, Rasoli said. Bagram, which lies north of Kabul, is the main U.S. military base in Afghanistan.

Weather circumstances were clear Tuesday evening and the reason of the crash wasn't right away clear. In May, a passenger plane operated by Pamir Airways, a private Afghan airline, crashed while traveling from Kunduz in northern Afghanistan to the assets. All 44 passengers on the plane died.

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Pakistan says it is key to Taliban peace talks

Pakistan's prime minister said Tuesday that calm talks stuck between the Afghan administration and the Taliban cannot be successful without Islamabad's help, a prompt of the influence the country has because of its chronological ties with the group.

The tapping about talks has picked up in new days, fueled in part by Afghan President Hamid Karzai's corroboration that his government has had informal deliberations with the Taliban on secure peace in Afghanistan "for quite some time."

Pakistan has obtainable to facilitate peace talks previously, except Afghanistan is believed to be suspicious of its motives. Pakistan helped the Taliban grab power in Afghanistan in the 1990s and many of the group's senior commander, including leader Mullah Omar, are supposed to be based along Pakistan's rugged border with Afghanistan.

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