US President Barack Obama is to make his long-awaited announcement on US strategy in Afghanistan next Tuesday, the White House has said.

During a visit to the West Point military academy, he will reveal how many extra troops he has decided to send to fight Taliban militants.

An exit strategy is expected to be a key part of the Obama announcement.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said on Wednesday that the US would be out of Afghanistan within eight years.

Meanwhile Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar has again rejected the idea of peace talks with Kabul.  Read more... (356 words, 1 image, estimated 1:25 mins reading time)

KABUL, Afghanistan – Days after President Obama outlines his new war strategy in a speech Tuesday, as many as 9,000 Marines will begin final preparations to deploy to southern Afghanistan and renew an assault on a Taliban stronghold that slowed this year amid a troop shortage and political pressure from the Afghan government, senior U.S. officials said.

The extra Marines will be the first to move into the country as part of Obama’s escalation of the eight-year-old war. They will double the size of the U.S. force in the southern province of Helmand and will provide a critical test for Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s struggling government and Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal’s counterinsurgency strategy.  Read more... (1073 words, 1 image, estimated 4:18 mins reading time)

Nato countries are struggling to muster the few thousand extra troops that America hopes will accompany about 30,000 US reinforcements likely to be promised by President Obama next week.

Reports from Washington that Nato partners are being encouraged to provide an additional 10,000 troops for Afghanistan were dismissed in European capitals as unrealistic. “It’s more likely to be in the region of 5,000 and they will be an assortment of penny packets from different nations,” one senior diplomatic source said.

Nato is to hold a conference in Mons, Belgium, on December 7, by which time the individual nations will be in a position to see what is required.  Read more... (316 words, 1 image, estimated 1:16 mins reading time)

Osama’s Wife and Son Take Us Inside Their Secret World by Jean Sasson, Najwa Bin Laden and Omar bin Laden.

The wonderful Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais (the creators of The Likely Lads and Porridge) once briefly toyed with the idea of writing a series in which Osama Bin Laden and his vast family (four wives, two dozen or so children) turned up in an ordinary English neighbourhood and attempted to live incognito. The opportunities for humour in such a set-up were obviously legion, but so, too, equally obviously, were the chances of causing grave offence, and sadly the idea was abandoned.  Read more... (1266 words, 1 image, estimated 5:04 mins reading time)

Osama bin Laden was cornered and within reach of US troops in the Afghanistan mountains of Tora Bora in late 2001 when America military leaders made the costly decision not to attack the terror leader with the massive force at their disposal, according to a US Senate report.

The report by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee asserts that the failure to kill or capture bin Laden in December 2001, three months after the September 11 attacks, has had lasting and disastrous consequences. Bin Laden’s escape laid the foundation for today’s reinvigorated Afghan insurgency and inflamed the internal strife now endangering Pakistan, it says.  Read more... (790 words, 1 image, estimated 3:10 mins reading time)

US forces had Osama Bin Laden “within their grasp” in Afghanistan in late 2001, a US Senate report says.

It says calls for US reinforcements were rejected, allowing the al-Qaeda leader to “walk unmolested” into Pakistan’s unregulated tribal areas.

The report was prepared by the Foreign Relations Committee Democratic staff.

It says the failure to kill or capture Bin Laden had far-reaching consequences and laid the foundation for the protracted Afghan insurgency.

The report comes as President Barack Obama prepares to announce a long-awaited decision on sending troop reinforcements to Afghanistan.  Read more... (373 words, 1 image, estimated 1:30 mins reading time)

Osama bin Laden was unquestionably within reach of US troops in the mountains of Tora Bora when US military leaders made the crucial and costly decision not to pursue the terrorist leader with massive force, a Senate report says.

The report asserts that the failure to kill or capture bin Laden at his most vulnerable in December 2001 has had lasting consequences beyond the fate of one man. Bin Laden’s escape laid the foundation for today’s reinvigorated Afghan insurgency and inflamed the internal strife now endangering Pakistan, it says.  Read more... (507 words, 1 image, estimated 2:02 mins reading time)

By DENIS D. GRAY, Associated Press Writer Denis D. Gray, Associated Press Writer
Sat Nov 28, 10:05 pm ET

FORWARD OPERATING BASE SHANK, Afghanistan – Veterans of Iraq recall rolling to war along asphalted highways, sweltering in flat scrublands and chatting with city-wise university graduates connected to the wider world.

Now fighting in Afghanistan, U.S. soldiers invariably encounter illiterate farmers who may never have talked to an American as they slog into remote villages on dirt tracks through bitterly cold, snow-streaked mountains.  Read more... (1331 words, 1 image, estimated 5:19 mins reading time)

Dilemma for Merkel over extra troops as cover-up of civilian deaths claims third high-profile figure. The future of Germany’s mission in Afghanistan was thrown into doubt today after a government minister resigned under growing pressure to admit his involvement in a campaign of misinformation over an air raid in which civilians were killed.

Franz Josef Jung, defence minister at the time, quit as labour minister a day after the army’s chief of staff, Wolfgang Schneiderhan, resigned over the incident with the deputy defence minister, Peter Wichert.

Jung said his decision followed “detailed consideration” and that he accepted “political responsibility for the internal information policy” in his ministry.  Read more... (818 words, 1 image, estimated 3:16 mins reading time)

PM paves way for US troop surge in Afghanistan, saying he has assurances from Nato countries. Gordon Brown paved the way today for the announcement next Tuesday of a large US troop surge in Afghanistan by saying he had received assurances from Nato countries that they would contribute an extra 5,000 troops.

The assurances are significant because both Brown and Barack Obama have said they will not commit more of their own troops unless there are increases in other Nato troop numbers.  Read more... (471 words, 1 image, estimated 1:53 mins reading time)