"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.
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Pakistan today said the situation could deteriorate further post-2014 after International Security Assistant Forces are withdrawn from the country.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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
No immediate reason was given for the absence of Zardari from the photo session, in which all the leaders participated.
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.
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.
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 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 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.
Two days after NATO forces conducted air strikes against militants within its territory, Pakistan on Monday protested against such attacks, saying they were "unacceptable" and a violation of its sovereignty.
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.
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).
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 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.
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.
The US defence secretary's visit comes ahead of the visit by US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice.
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.
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.
A Kam Air plane in Afghanistan with 96 passengers onboard has gone missing, agency reports said.
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 army chief General Raheel Sharif on Wednesday dashed off to Afghanistan to seek extradition of Taliban leader Mullah Fazlluah, whose group claimed responsibility for a deadly attack on an army school in Peshawar, which left 141 people, mostly children, dead.
The United States has announced a bounty of $30 million for information leading to the location of five key leaders of the Haqqani militant network, held responsible for several attacks on civilians and NATO forces in Afghanistan.
In Mumbai to promote his Netflix original film War Machine, the Hollywood star caught up with King Khan.
'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.
With the Afghanistan government in Kabul approaching Islamabad for help in opening "reconciliation" talks with the Taliban, a Pakistani role in shaping the political landscape in Afghanistan is now an uncomfortable likelihood for New Delhi.
Shaken by the Taliban terror attack in which 148 people, including 132 school children, were killed in Peshawar on Tuesday, Pakistan has pledged to announce a "national plan" to tackle terrorism within a week with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif saying "this entire region" should be cleaned of terrorism.
'By extending its support to the LeT, China is not helping the cause of containment and eventual destruction of radicalism and terror.'
A grieving Pakistan's policy shift towards the Taliban has comes at a great cost, says Shahzad Raza.
We should be prepared for a phase of increased tensions in India-Pakistan relationship thanks to the evolving situation in Afghanistan, says Shyam Saran.
'We have leaders who would rather that we cohabit with the Indian Mujahedeen than fight terror, as long as the payoffs are there in the next polls... Obviously, we are not headed down the best route to keep terror at bay,' says Brigadier S K Chatterji (retd).
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