Almost a quarter of the low-ranking Taleban commanders lured out of the insurgency in southern Afghanistan have rejoined the fight because of broken government promises and paltry rewards, a scathing report on reintegration claims.

Nato plans to spend more than $1 billion (£648 million) over the next five years tempting Taleban foot soldiers to lay down their arms.

But research by a Kabul-based thinktank warns that those efforts could make matters worse by swelling the ranks of the insurgency, exacerbating village level feuds and fuelling government corruption.  Read more... (766 words, 1 image, estimated 3:04 mins reading time)

KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) – Two U.S. service members and five insurgents were killed in a firefight in Afghanistan, the NATO-led command said Friday.

The incident took place late Thursday in Logar province, southeast of Kabul, when international and Afghan troops went to a compound in the Pul-e Alam district where insurgent activity was suspected.

Troops received machine gun fire from different points of the location and shot back, trading fire with the people inside, NATO said. The two U.S. troops died of wounds sustained in the firefight.  Read more... (141 words, 1 image, estimated 34 secs reading time)

Defence Minister John Faulkner has visited Australian troops in Afghanistan on Anzac Day during a three-day visit to the country to discuss the war effort there.

Senator Faulkner visited Australian commanders and military and police personnel in Tarin Kowt and Kandahar as part of the visit, which included talks in Kabul with Afghan Interior Minister Mohammad Hanif Atmar and Defence Minister Mohammad Rahim Wardak in Kabul to discuss Australia’s training mission in Oruzgan province.  Read more... (187 words, 1 image, estimated 45 secs reading time)

Ten Afghan civilians – including nine schoolchildren – who died in an attack in eastern Kunar province were killed by US troops, an Afghan MP claims.

Gulhar Jalal, investigating Saturday’s incident for the Afghan government, said they were killed as they slept.

Hundreds of students joined protests against the deaths on Wednesday in neighbouring Nangahar province.

A coalition spokesman confirmed the operation and that some were killed, but denied they were civilians.

He said the incident was part of a joint operation alongside Afghan troops against an insurgent network that had been tracked for some time.  Read more... (287 words, 1 image, estimated 1:09 mins reading time)

Afghanistan‘s Lifeline is Target of More Attacks But Better Security Where U.S. Troops Mass

Trucks gayly painted with hearts and doves jam up at crowded wayside bazaars. Billboards advertise cell phones and advise drivers to keep their donkeys off the road. t’s not readily evident that this is probably the world’s most dangerous highway, a prime target for Taliban insurgents attempting to sever a vital, 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) artery with ambushes, executions and roadside bombs.

Widely seen as symbolic of Afghanistan’s progress and security, or lack of it, Highway 1 suffered a dramatic increase in bomb attacks in 2009, but also a marked improvement along a critical 90-kilometer (55-mile) stretch after U.S. forces arrived in strength.  Read more... (161 words, 1 image, estimated 39 secs reading time)

Published: 4:37PM GMT 31 Dec 2009

Two French journalists were kidnapped north-east of Kabul together with their translator and driver, Afghan police said on Thursday.

Gunmen snatched the group on Wednesday as they were driving through Shinkai district of Kapisa province, 75 miles from Kabul.

“The two journalists, accompanied by their Afghan translator and the translator’s brother and cousin, were kidnapped on the road between Surobi and Tagab,” said a French colleague. She blamed the kidnapping on the Taliban, saying they had laid an ambush on the road for the group.  Read more... (220 words, 1 image, estimated 53 secs reading time)

Afghanistan‘s neighbors are helping destabilize the country as “time is running out” on the U.S. effort here, according to a senior intelligence official with the international military force in Kabul.
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Military hopes to create a defensive ring to protect residents in Kandahar.

The official accused Iran and Pakistan of maintaining links with the Afghan Taliban and singled out Pakistan for providing “insufficient pressure” on Afghan insurgent leaders who enjoy safe havens inside Pakistan — despite U.S. pressure to expel or fight them.  Read more... (170 words, 1 image, estimated 41 secs reading time)

Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) — A rocket struck the grounds of the Afghan interior ministry Saturday, but did not cause any casualties, authorities said.

The attack took place Saturday night, said Zahir Azimi, a spokesman for the defense ministry. He did not offer additional details.

The ministry is in the heart of the capital city, close to the presidential palace.

KANDAHAR–Children at an Afghan military base in the heart of Kandahar city must surely have one of the world’s strangest playgrounds.

They clamber up rusting tanks, using a still-swivelling turret as a merry-go-round. An overturned chassis from another now indeterminate weapon of war becomes a slide. A precariously balanced metal part from some other armament becomes a teeter-totter.

They hang upside down – a cannon barrel turned monkey bar. The hulks on which these children frolic are ghosts of a war past – a haunting testament to the folly of empire building gone horribly wrong.  Read more... (403 words, 1 image, estimated 1:37 mins reading time)

riginally published September 14, 2009

Photos showing private security guards in various stages of nudity at drunken parties may be as damaging to U.S. interests in Afghanistan as images of detainee mistreatment at Abu Ghraib were in Iraq, members of an independent panel investigating wartime spending said Monday.

By RICHARD LARDNER

Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON —

Photos showing private security guards in various stages of nudity at drunken parties may be as damaging to U.S. interests in Afghanistan as images of detainee mistreatment at Abu Ghraib were in Iraq, members of an independent panel investigating wartime spending said Monday.  Read more... (772 words, 1 image, estimated 3:05 mins reading time)