Independent voices from the TWT Communities
Militants staged two deadly suicide attacks Saturday to mark the first full day of U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel's visit to Afghanistan, a fresh reminder that insurgents continue to fight and challenges remain as the U.S.-led NATO force hands over the country's security to the Afghans.
President Obama's decision to bring half of America's 66,000 troops home within a year was welcomed Wednesday by Afghan officials who long have agitated to control their country, but the announcement was greeted with dismay by Afghans who think America has failed to keep its promise of a better and safer life.
Violence in Afghanistan fell in 2012, but more Afghan troops and police who now shoulder most of the combat were killed, according to statistics compiled by The Associated Press.
A suicide car bomber killed two Afghan civilians and wounded 14 others on Thursday near the main U.S. military base in southern Afghanistan, Afghan and American officials said. The attack took place after visiting U.S. Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta had left the facility.
Afghan authorities have detained or removed hundreds of soldiers in an investigation into rising insider attacks against international service personnel who are their supposed partners in the fight against Taliban insurgents and other militants, officials said Wednesday.
France suspended its training operations in Afghanistan and threatened to withdraw its entire force from the country early after an Afghan soldier shot and killed four French troops Friday and wounded 15 others.
A gunman wearing an Afghan army uniform opened fire on coalition troops in western Afghanistan, military authorities said Monday. An official said several NATO troops were wounded in the shooting and the gunman was killed.
A roadside bomb blast killed five Polish soldiers in eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday, NATO and a Polish official said, in the deadliest single attack for the Polish military there.
A Taliban suicide bomber rammed a van into an armored NATO bus Saturday, killing 13 American troops and four Afghans on a busy street in Kabul in the deadliest attack on coalition forces in more than two months and a major setback for the U.S.-led coalition as it begins to draw down combat troops.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Sunday accused Pakistan of firing 470 rockets into two eastern Afghan provinces over the past three weeks, a deadly rain of artillery that Afghan officials said killed 36 people, including 12 children.
An alleged Taliban sleeper agent opened fire Monday inside the Defense Ministry, killing at least two soldiers before he was gunned down in the third deadly breach of security in Afghanistan in less than a week.
A provincial governor in Afghanistan said Wednesday that a battle between NATO and the Taliban the previous day killed three women and two children, and called on the coalition to "pay attention" to civilian casualties.
Taliban fighters struck at Afghan security forces Sunday, storming an army recruiting center in the north that sparked a daylong gunbattle, and ambushing a bus carrying army officers in the capital — the first major attack in Kabul in months.
A roadside bomb targeting the car of a district police chief killed three police officers Thursday in southern Afghanistan, where militants have stepped up attacks on government workers in response to increased pressure from international troops.
NATO mistakenly killed five of its Afghan army allies in an air strike Wednesday while the Afghans were attacking insurgents in the country's east, officials said.
Azimi, the defense ministry spokesman, said the bomber on a bicycle struck just before 9 a.m. local time about 30 meters (yards) from the main gate of the ministry.
Afghan bombers strike during Defense Secretary Hagel's visit →
"The ceremony is not happening today," Defense Ministry spokesman Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi said, without elaborating.
Afghan bombers strike during Defense Secretary Hagel's visit →
