With the Bush Administration reportedly conducting a major review of Afghanistan policy, a soon-to-be-finished National Intelligence Estimate on Afghanistan will remain classified and unavailable to the general public. Officials say that a draft version of the report...
Fighting in Afghanistan came to a virtual standstill today as all major combatants agreed to halt offensive operations in honor of International Peace Day. UN envoy Kai Eldi described the drop in violence as "remarkable," with only one attack (the killing of two...
Updating a previous story, it has now been three weeks since Pakistan's government declared its Ramadan ceasefire. With the Muslim holy month more than half way over the ceasefire still hasn't materialized, and though Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik told the...
Just days after General David McKiernan announced his "revised tactical order" designed to reduce the number of civilians killed in NATO raids, Australian special forces surrounded a house in the Afghan province of Oruzgan and opened fire, killing district governor...
Much has been said in the past week about Admiral Michael Mullen's talk of a "new, more comprehensive" strategy in Afghanistan before the House Armed Services Committee, and while the focus of this strategy has been the US escalation in Pakistan, The Independent has...
United States Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has issued his "sincere condolences and personal regrets" for the large number of Afghan civilians recently killed by the US and its allies in air strikes. Gates pledged that NATO forces would do more in the future to...
Afghan police arrested three people and accused them of providing the false tip that led to last month's disastrous US air strike in Herat Province which a UN investigation determined killed at least 90 civilians and strained ties between NATO forces and the Afghan...
Afghan President Hamid Karzai, while very supportive of a change in US strategy which would involve increased strikes on militants in Pakistan, a strategy he says he has pushed for years, said today that he opposes a long-term presence of foreign troops within...
In testimony today before the House Armed Services Committee Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Admiral Michael Mullen said that he believes the present strategy in Afghanistan is not working, adding "I'm not convinced we're winning it in Afghanistan". This is just the...
Besides provoking a series of anti-US protests, last month's Herat airstrike brought harsh condemnation from Afghan President Hamid Karzai. Not long after, Karzai blamed the British government for the upsurge in Taliban activity in Helmand Province. These were just...
