American military commanders operating with the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation led mission in Afghanistan have informed US President Barack Obama's special envoy to the region, Richard Holbrooke, that they do not have enough troops to do their job, and are being pushed past their limit by Taliban rebels who operate across borders.
Low voter turnout marked the general elections in Afghanistan on Thursday, as the war-ravaged country voted to choose their next president for the second time since 2001.
A coordinated Taliban assault on the Afghan capital was quelled on Wednesday after raging for 19 hours in a hail of rockets, grenades and suicide blasts that left 14 dead and six foreign troops wounded.
The top United States admiral involved in the Libyan war has admitted to a US Congressman that forces of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation are actively targeting and trying to kill Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. House Armed Services Committee member Mike Turner said that Samuel Locklear, commander of the NATO Joint Operations Command in Naples, told him NATO forces are trying to kill Gaddafi.
A driver of a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation oil tanker was killed and his assistant injured when suspected militants attacked the vehicle in Balochistan province of southwest Pakistan on Friday, police said.
Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi has pledged to remain in his 'land dead or alive' after a number of low-flying North Atlantic Treaty Organisation's jets attacked his compound. Gaddafi made his comments in a televised broadcast to criticise the attack. His whereabouts are not known. "We will not surrender: we only have one choice -- to the end! Death, victory, it does not matter, we are not surrendering," the paper quoted Gaddafi as saying.
Libya's embattled leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi is showing increasing signs of paranoia, he's on the run and has been spending nights hiding in different hospitals to dodge North Atlantic Treaty Organisation air raids, a British news report said.
At least 16 people were killed and several more injured when North Atlantic Treaty Organisation oil tankers bound for Afghanistan were targeted with bombs in the Pakistani border town of Landi Kotal on Saturday, officials said.
United States President Barack Obama has appointed Bruce Riedel, a veteran Central Investigative Agency analyst for nearly three decades, to chair an inter-agency policy review of US policy toward Afghanistan and Pakistan.Obama's press spokesman Robert Gibbs said that this policy review chaired by Riedel would have to be completed before the summit of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation in April.
Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi stated this after a meeting with visiting NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, who sought deepening cooperation and developing political dialogue between Pakistan and the European military alliance to achieve common strategic objectives. Any 'activation on the eastern border' would affect Pakistan's involvement in the war on terror, Qureshi told a joint press conference after their talks.
Two navy sailors and a civilian were killed, a naval spokesman told the media. Over 15 injured people, including civilians, were taken to two nearby hospitals.
As forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi continue to push the rebels from their positions, cracks seem to be appearing in the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation over military strategy in Libya, with major NATO alliance partner France demanding that the punishing raids should be carried out to finish strongman's tanks and heavy artillery.
A North Atlantic Treaty Organisation air attack on Thursday killed at least 13 rebels and wounded several others near Brega, after they were mistaken for Muammar Gaddafi's forces which was engaged in fierce fighting for the control of the eastern oil hub.
About 100 vehicles destined for the US-led North Atlantic Treaty Organisation forces in Afghanistan were set ablaze on Monday by heavily armed pro-Taliban militants in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar, in the second such attack in as many days.
The rebel-stronghold of Benghazi came under attack on Saturday from ground and air, with explosions rocking the city despite a ceasefire announced by Muammar Gaddafi forces, prompting a warning by the United States that the Libyan leader was violating the truce.
The United States may keep a combat force of around 10,000 in Afghanistan, including a small counter-terrorism force after 2014 as a contingency against re-emergence of the Al Qaeda.
The Haqqani network is planning to target the United States-led North Atlantic Treaty Organisation forces in Afghanistan from its new bases in the Kurram agency.
Most of the Afghan Taliban frontier leadership had reportedly been sheltered in Karachi under a Pakistani security establishment's secret programme -- the New Karachi Project -- according to a newspaper report.
Pakistan will attack al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden the moment it has reliable intelligence information about his whereabouts, Pakistan's envoy to the United States Hussain Haqqani said on Friday.Haqqani also said he was confident that Pakistan could help foil any al Qaeda plans to attack the United States, although he did not know of any right now. The envoy is pressing for more cooperation with the United States on intelligence.
The Taliban is ready to completely disown the Al Qaeda, and is willing to work with the United States to improve security in Afghanistan, a major report has disclosed.
The United States is set to give control of a controversial prison having nearly 3,000 Taliban rebels and terror suspects to the Afghan authorities.
The first cargo aircraft of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation carrying relief goods for survivors of the devastating floods in Pakistan on Monday arrived at the military's Chaklala air base. In response to a request by the government of Pakistan, the NATO had on Friday decided to provide airlift and sealift for the delivery of aid to Pakistan flood survivors. The NATO started to airlift nearly 500 tonnes of relief supplies from Europe to Pakistan.
The expression of remorse by United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was enough to break the deadlock that had led to the blocking of North Atlantic Treaty Organisation's supply routes for the last seven months, following the killing of 24 Pakistani soldiers in a cross-border NATO strike at the Salala check-post in November last year.
In a fresh jolt to United States-Pakistan ties, the Pentagon on Monday said it is withdrawing its team of negotiators from Pakistan for a "short period of time", after talks failed to lift the six-month blockade of North Atlantic Treaty Organisation's supply routes to war-torn Afghanistan.
Pakistan will soon reopen the ground lines of communication to Afghanistan, which were shut down last November following the death of 24 soldiers in a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation's strike, the White House has said. "We continue to work with Pakistan on this issue. We did not anticipate that the supply line issue was going to be resolved prior to the summit. And our teams continue to meet and we are making diligent progress," said White House Press Secretary Jay Carney.
United States President Barack Obama should "show some courage" and apologise to Pakistan for a cross-border air strike by North Atlantic Treaty Organisation forces in Afghanistan that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers last year, the ruling Pakistan People's Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has said.
The United States on Tuesday said that North Atlantic Treaty Organisation countries have decided it is important to have participation of Pakistan at the Chicago Summit on Afghanistan hoping that Islamabad would be able to reopen the supply routes by then.
Continuing its tirade against the successful launch of Agni V, Chinese state media has again accused New Delhi of buckling under pressure from the North Atlantic Treaty organisation to cut down the missile's range from 9,000 km to 5,000 km.
Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai will arrive in Washington on Monday to hold talks with the United States administration on a host of crucial issues.Karzai has already been pulled up by Obama over the rampant corruption in the Afghanistan administration. But in a bid to pacify its important ally in the war on terror, Obama has reportedly instructed senior officials to treat Karzai with respect and stop criticising his government.
Springtime always brings in an influx of Taliban fighters to the district of Zhari, in Kandahar province of Afghanistan, where the thick cover provided by the grapevines and the orchards prevent North Atlantic Treaty Organisations's hi-tech thermal imaging cameras to see the insurgents hiding within, a report in the Guardian states.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard on Tuesday announced the withdrawal of most Australian troops from Afghanistan by the middle of next year, while rolling out her future plan of Canberra's role in the war-torn country. In a speech in Canberra, Gillard said Australian troops would begin pulling out this year and most would be home by the end of 2013 -- an election year in the country.
Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has said his government is in no hurry to reopen the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation supply routes that were closed after a cross-border air strike last year and that a decision on the issue will be made only after evolving consensus among political parties.
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.
The United States Army continues to investigate the tragic killing of 16 Afghan civilians in Kandahar, the Pentagon has said but remained unclear as to when the suspected American soldier would be charged.
Observing that the future of Afghanistan has a regional dimension, the Obama Administration has hoped that Iran would play a constructive role in bringing long-term peace and stability in the war-torn country.
North Atlantic Treaty Organisation is being allowed to use Pakistani airspace to fly food supplies to troops in Afghanistan though land routes have been closed since a cross-border air strike last year, Defence Minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar said on Tuesday.
Pakistan has offered to play a central role in resolving the ongoing conflict in Afghanistan and hold talks with the Taliban. Pakistan's proposal is likely to be discussed when National Security Adviser General James L Jones visits Islamabad later this week, says the report. United States has reacted cautiously to Pakistan's renewed interest in seeking dialogue with the Taliban.
'US forces have killed Mullah Dadullah Akhund, a member of the 12-member shura of the Neo Taliban.'
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