North Atlantic Treaty Organisation spy planes mounted a 24-hour air space surveillance over Libya, as British Defence Secretary Liam Fox hinted that a no-fly zone could be enforced without wiping the North African nation's air defences.
President Obama had been justifiably angered by McChrystal's irreverent remarks which appeared in Rolling Stone. His irreverent remarks caused considerable embarrassment in the Pentagon and the White House. His dismissal was inevitable.
General David Petraeus, Commander of the US Central Command, on Tuesday refuted reports that Afghan President Hamid Karzai has lost confidence in the American and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation forces to succeed in Afghanistan.
Nirupama Rao, India's new ambassador to the United States, has defended India's stand on Libya and Syria, which stands in stark contrast to that of the US and its allies in the NATO. In the interaction that followed her keynote address at the third Brookings-FICCI Strategic Dialogue on US-India Relations, Rao said, "Let me say that we deeply value the consultations that we had with the United States on issues related to the Arab Spring and the upheavals that we have seen".
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.
Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi is still believed to be inside the country, even as the rebel forces have entered the capital Tripoli, the Pentagon has said. =
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Wednesday warned that a third World War, should it break out, will be "nuclear and devastating", amid spiralling tensions with the West over Moscow's ongoing massive military operation against Ukraine.
The Pakistanis play quid pro quo diplomacy better than India does. They know how to promote their national interests while taking advantage of the needs of the US in the Afghaistan-Pakistan region, notes B Raman.
At least 10 people have been killed in a more than four-hour standoff between militants and police at a luxury hotel in Kabul, according to the Afghan police.
Russia ruled out joining the US-dominated North Atlantic Treaty Organisation's military bloc on Tuesday saying such a move would jeopardise its sovereignty as it asserted that it was capable of ensuring its security.
South African President Jacob Zuma has said that Colonel Muammar Gaddafi is "ready" to implement an African Union plan to end the Libyan conflict. He, however, remained silent on his plans to leave Libya, something that the rebels have insisted on, prior to any settlement.
Pakistan army does not expect the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation-led inquiry into the last month's deadly air strike to be transparent and did not see any tangible result coming out of the probe that it had refused to be part of.
The Libyan government on Monday said that strongman Muammar Gaddafi was "unharmed" in North Atlantic Treaty Organisation's heaviest attack on his compound as his forces bombarded the besieged western city of Misurata with rockets, giving the town no respite.
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.
Just a few days Operation Odyssey Dawn, the collective international action under United Nations authority to protect the Libyan people, has already derailed Gaddafi's bloody assault on rebel-held territories.
After initial skepticism, the Obama administration has finally begun to acknowledge that Hamid Karzai would be re-elected as Afghanistan's President for second consecutive term, media reports said on Monday.
Factions of the Pakistani and Iranian intelligence agencies have been supporting the Taliban and other terrorist groups to carry out attacks on the US-led international forces in Afghanistan, said a top US commander in the restive country.
Mullah Omar, the Taliban's elusive leader, has warned United States-led troops in Afghanistan that their 'unequivocal defeat' is imminent, as the insurgents are 'forging ahead like a powerful flood' against them. In a purported online message issued to mark Eid, Omar referred to 'huge casualties and sagging morale' among the more than 100,000 North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and US-led troops in Afghanistan fighting Taliban-linked insurgents.
David Petraeus, considered to be one of the best war-time generals and who till recently was commander of US-led North Atlantic Treaty Organisation forces in Afghanistan, was on Tuesday sworn in as the chief of the Central Intelligence Agency.
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.
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.
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.
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.
At least six people were killed and 27 tankers of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation were set on fire during an attack by suspected militants on an oil depot close to Islamabad. According to the BBC, dozens of tankers were being filled with fuel for NATO troops in Afghanistan when the attack took place on Monday morning."Between 10 to 12 men armed with automatic weapons stormed the depot from two sides. They opened indiscriminate fire on the tankers," said an official.
North Atlantic Treaty Organisation has announced plans for a large-scale airlift of relief supplies from Europe for the survivors of the devastating floods in Pakistan, as donors pledged more assistance after a slow start of aid efforts.
In understanding Obama's strategy, we must begin with an obvious but unstated point: The extra forces that will be deployed to Afghanistan are not expected to defeat the Taliban. Instead, their mission is to reverse the momentum of previous years and to create the circumstances under which an Afghan force can take over the mission.
A top United States General has said Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, is probably hiding in the remote mountainous regions of Pakistan, even though no one known where he actually is.
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.
Supporting United States General McChrystal's plan to send additional troops to Afghanistan, a former American general on Wednesday told the US lawmakers that there should be no Afghan 'exit strategy' till the Al Qaeda leadership currently based in Pakistan is eliminated.
The Taliban has intensified the war strategies for its forces as evident from the latest directive issued by its leader Mullah Omar.
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.
The UK government has taken the unusual step of making a formal statement to warn of a Russian plot to install a pro-Kremlin leader in Ukraine amid growing tensions in the region.
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 man at the centre of the storm, Newsweek magazine, reported was Mullah Gul Agha Akhund, who is an in-law and long time confident of Mullah Omar. Akhund is brandishing a handwritten letter from Mullah Omar to claim to be the new second-in-command of the Afghan Taliban. But, his claim is being hotly contested by top military commanders of the outfit.
A suicide car bomb attack near a hospital and army recruitment centre killed at least 20 civilians in Kabul on Tuesday morning, and injured scores of others.According to reports, North Atlantic Treaty Organisation's troops were the target of the attack that took place during rush hour in the western part of the Afghan capital. A NATO convoy was passing the area at the time of the attack, said reports.No group has claimed responsibility for the attack so far.
At least seven people were killed and over 90 injured in a suicide car bomb blast outside the NATO headquarters in Kabul on Saturday. The presidential palace and several embassies are also located in the area. The blast comes just five days before presidential elections and against a backdrop of increased violence by the Taliban. Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai condemned the attack, saying people would not be deterred from voting.
And for any solution to work, Pakistan could not be excluded, the writer Tahir Ali said, not least because a great many Pashtuns, who live within Pakistan but don't recognise the Afghan-Pakistan border, would be up in arms. The Pakistan military would be a key player in any decision taken on Afghanistan -- along with Iran, Russia and China.
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