Afghanistan war

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Obama, Karzai Agree to Speed Military Shift in Afghanistan

(Newser) - President Barack Obama and Afghan President Hamid Karzai said today they have agreed to speed up slightly the schedule for moving Afghanistan's security forces into the lead across the country, with US troops shifting fully to a support role. The leaders also said Obama agreed to place battlefield detainees...

US Considers Total Afghan Withdrawal

'Zero option' after 2014 raised before Karzai talks

(Newser) - How many US troops should stay in Afghanistan after the NATO combat mission ends next year? For the first time, officials are now saying zero is an option. Commanders recommend keeping a force of up to 15,000 in the country, but Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes, speaking to...

On Karzai's Agenda for US Visit: Complaints

Afghan president has list of demands

(Newser) - Hamid Karzai will be in DC this week, and the visit sounds like it will be a less-than-pleasant one for President Obama. The Washington Post details the list of complaints Karzai will want to discuss, chief among them Karzai's belief that the US is violating his country's sovereignty...

McChrystal Takes Blame for Article That Tanked His Career

Ex-general's memoir also takes potshot at Rolling Stone reporter

(Newser) - Speaking out for the first time since he resigned, retired Gen. Stanley McChrystal takes the blame for a Rolling Stone article and the unflattering comments attributed to his staff about the Obama administration that ended his Afghanistan command and army career. "Regardless of how I judged the story for...

Post-2014 Afghanistan: US Has 3 Options

Gen. Allen presents scenarios to Pentagon

(Newser) - Gen. John Allen has submitted three options to the Pentagon for how to maintain a presence in Afghanistan after the 2014 military withdrawal, defense officials tell the New York Times :
  • 6,000 troops, highest risk of failure: At this level, the US mission would focus on counterterrorism. Special Ops commandos
...

Afghans to Fleeing US Forces: Where's the Rent?

Property disputes simmer over abandoned bases

(Newser) - Afghans are crying foul over US forces that have fled their bases without paying rent or settling land disputes that could undermine the Afghan government, the Guardian reports. In one village in eastern Kunar province, people awoke one morning to find buildings of a US base blown up, with air...

Afghan Policewoman Kills US Adviser

It's the latest in a rising tide of insider attacks

(Newser) - An Afghan policewoman shot and killed an American adviser outside the police headquarters in Kabul today, senior Afghan officials said. The killing of the American, who worked as a contractor with the NATO command, was the first known insider attack by a woman in Afghanistan, and the latest in a...

Sign of Improving Relations: US Paying Pakistan $688M

John Kerry is a big supporter of such aid

(Newser) - In a sign that US-Pakistan relations are improving, the Pentagon will send Pakistan a $688 million payment, the first reimbursement sent to the country since this summer. Such payments, called coalition support funds, cover the cost of stationing troops on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, and many of them have been delayed...

Landmine Kills 10 Girls in Afghanistan

Girls were out collecting firewood

(Newser) - Ten young girls have been killed and two others were injured in a landmine explosion in eastern Afghanistan. The local governor says the girls, aged between nine and 11, were killed when one of them hit the mine with an axe as they were out collecting firewood, the BBC reports....

US Troop Deaths in Afghanistan Plummet in 2012

Deaths drop 25%, reflecting lower presence, increased Afghan responsibility

(Newser) - So far this year, 301 American troops have died in Afghanistan, down from 2010's peak of 500 and last year's 413, USA Today reports. The sharp decrease reflects the declining number of US troops in the country and the increasing number of Afghan troops now fighting the Taliban....

US to UN: We've Held 200 Teens in Afghanistan

Youths' average age is 16: report

(Newser) - During the war in Afghanistan, the US has detained some 200 teenage "enemy combatants," each for about a year, American officials tell the UN. The youths have been held at a military prison near Bagram Airfield not as punishment, but in order to prevent them "from returning...

Taliban Kill 5 in Suicide Blast at US-Afghan Base

Hit sparks 2-hour gunbattle in Jalalabad

(Newser) - Taliban suicide bombers attacked a joint US-Afghan air base in eastern Afghanistan early today, detonating explosives at the gate and sparking a gunbattle that lasted at least two hours with American helicopters firing down at militants before the attackers were defeated. The attackers and at least five Afghans were killed,...

Post-2014 Plan: Keep 10K Troops in Afghanistan

But Karzai must still agree

(Newser) - The White House has settled on the number of troops it wants to leave in Afghanistan post-2014: 10,000. Gen. John Allen had recommended keeping between 6,000 and 15,000 troops there after formal combat ends to train Afghan troops and fight terrorism. The Obama administration's final choice...

Suicide Bombers Penetrate Kabul's Green Zone

2 dead in suicide attack; Taliban claims responsibility

(Newser) - A suicide attack hit Kabul's Green Zone today, the fortified area housing government officials, diplomats, and US military, killing two Afghan security guards. The Wall Street Journal says a single bomber attempted to occupy an unfinished building, from which he could have fired into the CIA compound and nearby...

Karzai to Afghan Troops: Take Back Our Prison

President orders Afghan forces to retake control of Bagram prison

(Newser) - Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai says the US has not abided by an agreement to hand over the prison at Bagram Air Base to Afghan forces, so he today ordered those forces to take over the prison, the New York Times reports. Karzai says the two-month grace period to complete the...

Afghanistan Vets' Silent Killer: Fungus in Soil

It gets into their bodies in IED blasts

(Newser) - Doctors are struggling to deal with a fungal infection that's complicating the recovery of some of the most severely wounded US veterans. The fungus is thought to exist in the Afghan soil and to infect troops when they're wounded by IEDs, USA Today explains. Often, such explosions result...

Army Seeks Death Penalty for Bales

But defense cites toxic mix of drugs, alcohol in stressful environment

(Newser) - Military prosecutors in the murder trial of Staff Sgt. Robert Bales are calling for the death penalty, saying that his "heinous, brutal, methodical, despicable” murders of 16 Afghan civilians in a shooting rampage, especially the nine children who died , merit the ultimate punishment, reports the New York Times . But...

Top General Emailed Woman in Petraeus Scandal

Pentagon investigating John Allen's links to Jill Kelley

(Newser) - David Petraeus' sex scandal just got a lot bigger. The Pentagon has revealed that it is investigating Gen. John Allen, the top US commander in Afghanistan, for allegedly sending "inappropriate communications" to Jill Kelley, Petraeus' other other woman. The FBI referred the matter to the Pentagon on Sunday, Leon...

US Nears Decision on Post-2014 Afghan Presence

Gen. John Allen's recommendations under review as scandal grabs him

(Newser) - In the coming weeks, the US will make a decision on the number of troops to remain in Afghanistan after the planned drawdown in 2014, Reuters reports. "My hope is that we'll be able to complete this process in the next few weeks," says Defense Secretary Leon...

Afghan Villagers Pleaded to Bales: 'We Are Children'

Soldier's hearing in massacre under way in Washington state

(Newser) - Residents of the Afghan village Robert Bales stands accused of shooting up in a blood-soaked rampage that killed 16 took their turn on the witness stand last night as part of the Army sergeant's military hearing, reports the AP , and the details were as graphic as they were awful....

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