India has strongly criticised Pakistan at the UN Security Council, highlighting civilian deaths and injuries in Afghanistan caused by cross-border violence by Pakistani military forces, accusing Pakistan of 'heinous acts' and 'systematic genocide'.
Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif chaired a high-level meeting to review regional and internal security in light of recent events in Iran and Afghanistan.
An Afghan national was arrested in West Bengal's Nadia district for allegedly entering India from Bangladesh without valid documents. The individual was apprehended by the Border Security Force (BSF) near the Fatepur border area and handed over to local police for further investigation.
India told the UN Security Council that it calls for a pragmatic engagement with the Taliban, underlining that a focus on only punitive measures will ensure a 'business as usual' approach.
"For more than a year, General Allen has served with distinction as the Commander of US Forces and NATO International Security Assistances Forces in Afghanistan, seeing us through a critical period in our military efforts and in Afghanistan's transition," Obama said.
The delegations from the US and Iran head to Islamabad on Friday, carrying a ceasefire that is already fraying, a Strait that is technically open and practically closed, and a negotiating agenda that would challenge even parties actually negotiating in good faith, which these groups are not. Prem Panicker continues his must read blog on the Iran War.
Expressing concern over political instability and drug trafficking in Afghanistan, Russia and Pakistan today said the situation could deteriorate further post-2014 after International Security Assistant Forces are withdrawn from the country.
A senior Lashkar-e-Tayiba commander has been captured along with other militants in an operation by United States-led security forces in Afghanistan, the latest in a string of arrests of the members of the Pakistan-based terror group in the neighbouring country.
Today's situation in the Shaksgam Valley is the consequence of what happened in Gilgit in 1947. But is India ready to militarily get back its territories? asks Claude Arpi.
The United States has announced the appointment of a new commander of its forces in Afghanistan as it now starts sending an additional 21,000 troops to this war-torn country to fight against the Taliban and the Al Qaeda. "McKiernan was asked to resign," Gates told reporters at a Pentagon press conference. Both the White House and the Defense Department said the changes in the top US military leadership has been taken in view of US President Barack Obaama's new Af-Pak policy.
Two top Taliban and Al Qaeda-linked militants were killed in northern Afghanistan in combat operations conducted by the country's Special Operations Unit and coalition troops, officials said on Monday.
Meanwhile, a high-level team which assessed the security measures for Indians in Afghanistan has opined that the protective arrangements were adequate but there was a need to follow these properly and religiously by the individuals, sources said.
Sixteen Afghans were killed by a 'rogue' United States soldier who walked off his base and opened fire on them in their homes in the early hours of Sunday morning. The dead include nine children and three women, plus five wounded.
However, leaders of the NATO-led ISAF mission countries at the end of their Chicago meeting pledged to have a long-term commitment to Afghanistan, given that they still have a long way to go in the fight against terrorism and achieving political stability and satisfactory-level security in the country, to have another NATO-led mission for Afghanistan post 2014.
A Turkish military helicopter on a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation mission crashed into a house outside the Afghan capital Kabul on Friday, killing at least 15 people -- 12 soldiers on board and three civilians on the ground.
'Pakistan is uncomfortable with the Indian presence in Afghanistan. They want the Taliban to ensure that there is no Indian presence in Afghanistan.'
The statement, reported in the New York Times, came a day after Pakistan's Ambassador to the US Sherry Rehman said Pakistan has provided to American and NATO commanders in Afghanistan on 52 different occasions in the last eight the locations from which the militants were attacking but the information exchange has been to no avail.
That moment in 1914 - when troops along Europe's Flanders front met after four months killing each other to sing carols, exchange gifts and play soccer in No Man's Land - is celebrated as a triumph of humanity over the savagery of war.
'India could help in Afghanistan, but if it does too much, it will stoke Pakistan's paranoia and risk making the situation worse,' Michael O'Hanlon, one of America's leading experts on international security, tells Rediff.com's Vicky Nanjappa.
The National Security Strategy document should flag all major issues concerning security strategy and provide guidelines to concerned departments to work out suitable action plans. Since the global and regional geopolitical canvas is dynamic, the NSS document should be deliberated at length before formulation and should be reviewed periodically, recommends Commodore Venugopal Menon (retd).
The temporary suspension of the crucial North Atlantic Treaty Organisation supply route to Afghanistan by Islamabad last year in response to incursions by allied forces and the Davis Raymond episode reflects the fragile nature of the United States-Pakistan relationship, the Obama administration said in a new report.
To get back into reckoning and ensure India's interests are given their due in Afghanistan, we need to evaluate a new mix of soft and hard options, writes Brigadier S K Chatterji (retd).
'With the US having entered the war, raising the risks of a wider conflict, those impacts could be even more damaging.'
Pakistan Army chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani on Thursday called for transparent ties with US based on mutual trust as he met American commander in Afghanistan, days after the two sides struck a deal ending a seven-month blockade of NATO supply routes.
The top United States commander in Afghanistan has said that they are facing difficulties in their latest military campaign against the Taliban due to lack of cooperation from Pakistan.General Stanley McChrystal, the commander of the International Security Assistance Force and US Forces in Afghanistan, is believed to have pursued this line in his secret visit to Islamabad over the weekend, during which he met President Asif Ali Zardari and Army chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani.
Prince Harry, known as Captain Wales in the British military, on Friday arrived at Camp Bastion in Afghanistan's Helmand province to start an operational tour as an Apache helicopter pilot, the defence ministry said in London.
The Pentagon leadership has strongly denied reports that it has pressurised Pakistani army chief General Ashfaq Kayani to extend the military's anti-Taliban operations into North Waziristan, in the wake of the botched Times Square bombing attempt by Pakistani-American Faisal Shahzad, who received terror training in that region.
Twenty to thirty rockets landed at Hamid Karzai International Airport in the centre of Kabul, Tolo news reported. There are no reports of causalities yet.
The US defence secretary's visit comes ahead of the visit by US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice.
Top military commanders of Afghanistan, Pakistan and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation on Sunday discussed border control measures and mechanisms to avert "untoward incidents" along the Afghan frontier, as the three sides resumed high-level military contact after a break of several months.
'Trump has personally weighed in to overcome doubts and reservations about Pakistan among his top advisors.'
Two top United States officials have called off visits to Islamabad without assigning any reasons, reflecting the current tensions between the two countries as they struggle to reset their troubled ties a year after the killing of Al Qaeda's Osama bin Laden.
According to English daily Dawn, goods manufactured in India are reaching Kabul through Pakistan under the tags of International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation.
No immediate reason was given for the absence of Zardari from the photo session, in which all the leaders participated.
Pakistan Army and United States-led forces in Afghanistan have decided to target Tehreek-e-Taliban chief Mullah Fazlullah using drones rather than a ground operation in the areas where he is believed to be taking sanctuary.
Pakistan's parliament will decide the contours of future relations with the United States and its allies after November's cross-border NATO air strike, Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar said on Thursday.
A Kam Air plane in Afghanistan with 96 passengers onboard has gone missing, agency reports said.
Trump thanked the Government of Pakistan for "helping arrest this monster".
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