Taleban

17 June 2008 -- The Pentagon says reports that Taliban forces have taken over several villages in southern Afghanistan are false, and that any Taliban offensive in the area will be defeated.

The Pentagon says a U.S. patrol in the Arghandab district of Kandahar Province Tuesday encountered no Taliban forces.

Troops in Kandahar City, Afghanistan: Photo by Pierre Gazzola (CC)    » read more »

16 June 2008 -- Afghanistan's president has threatened to send troops after Taliban militants who take sanctuary in neighboring Pakistan. Analysts say the threat is somewhat hollow. But it does increase the danger of a miscalculation along the Pakistan-Afghan border.

Analysts discount that President Hamid Karzai would actually be able to follow through on his threat to dispatch troops into Pakistan in hot pursuit of Islamic militant fighters. They point out that the Afghan National Army is still relatively weak and that most military and security functions in Afghanistan are handled by NATO forces.

Hilary Synnott, a former British ambassador to Pakistan, also says the NATO security forces policing Afghanistan would try to head off any such action.    » read more »

WASHINGTON, June 13, 2008 – The current number of forces in Afghanistan is enough to accomplish the mission, but it’ll take awhile to do so, the U.S. officer who just finished his tour as commander of NATO troops in Afghanistan said here today.

Mortar fire, Afghanistan: Photo by soldiersmediacenter (CC)

“Let’s just say that somebody waved a magic wand, and by gosh, between the Afghans and the international force you’d produced a force that was well over 400,000,” Army Gen. Dan K. McNeill said to reporters at a Pentagon news conference.    » read more »

Washington, 01 August 2007 (By Jim Malone) -- Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama said Wednesday he would be willing to send U.S. troops into Pakistan to hunt down terrorists without permission from the government of President Pervez Musharraf. Senator Obama made the comments in a foreign policy speech in Washington, as we hear from VOA National correspondent Jim Malone.

Obama focused on how he would fight the war on terrorism if he were elected president in November of next year.    » read more »

30 July 2007 (By VOA News) -- NATO officials say they plan to use smaller bombs in Afghanistan to limit the rise in civilian casualties.

NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said the number of civilians killed during fighting between NATO with the Taleban has damaged the reputation of the alliance. He added that NATO commanders recently instructed troops to hold off attacking rebels in situations where civilians would be at risk.    » read more »