It was the second large-scale attack in Kabul claimed by the hardline Islamist group in two days. On Monday, seven insurgents, including suicide bombers, laid siege to Kabul’s main airport for four hours before they were killed.
Tuesday’s bomb struck three minibuses taking Supreme Court staff home. A Reuters witness described seeing a damaged minibus leaning against some trees about 30 meters from the point of the explosion. The witness later saw police carry two bodies from the same area. The Supreme Court is less than 500 meters from the entrance to the heavily fortified U.S. embassy.
Earlier this week, the Taliban beheaded two boys in southern Afghanistan. The cruel murders of the young boys, ages 10 and 16, was claimed to be a “warning” to locals not to cooperate with the government.
In this photo, a victim is seen among damaged vehicles at the site of the explosion in Kabul on June 11, 2013. REUTERS/Omar Sobhani
The United States has violated Pakistan’s sovereignty and shattered tribal structures with unmanned drone strikes in its counterterrorism operations near the Afghan border, a U.N. human rights investigator said in a statement on Friday.
It was a harrowing international debut for Chuck Hagel, whose first trip to Afghanistan as U.S. defense secretary went dramatically off-script and challenged the American narrative about the 11-year-old war.
His first full day in Afghanistan began with the sound of suicide bomb attack about a kilometer away from his morning meetings at a NATO facility. But the real damage came the next day when Washington’s mercurial ally in the war, Afghan President Hamid Karzai, accused the United States of colluding with the Taliban hours before the two met.
Put in an awkward position, Hagel appeared cautious and at pains to avoid sharply criticizing the Afghan leader, even as he firmly disputed Karzai’s assertions. Having weathered a brutal confirmation battle last month, the former two-term Republican senator at one point even appeared to commiserate with Karzai.
“I was once a politician,” Hagel, 66, told reporters traveling with him. “So I can understand the kind of pressures - especially leaders of countries - are always under.”
READ ON: Cautious Chuck Hagel focuses on troops during Afghan visit
NATO officials are strongly considering a proposal to keep Afghan forces at their peak strength of 352,000 until at least 2018, as opposed to current plans to cut the force by a third after 2015, alliance officials said on Thursday.
Backers say the proposal, disclosed to a small group of reporters during NATO talks in Brussels, would send a crucial signal of enduring support for Afghanistan and bolster Afghan confidence after the United States and its allies declare their long, unpopular war in the country over at the end of 2014.
But it could also cost allies billions of dollars more at a time when budget pressures are already squeezing defense spending and forcing Western nations to make tough choices about military priorities.
READ ON: NATO may keep Afghan forces at peak strength longer
U.S. President Barack Obama meets with Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzai in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, January 11, 2013. REUTERS/Jason Reed
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An Afghan woman wearing a police uniform shot dead on Monday a civilian contractor working for Western forces in the police chief’s compound in Kabul, NATO said.
The incident is likely to raise troubling questions about the direction of an unpopular war.
It appeared to be the first time that a woman member of Afghanistan’s security forces carried out such an attack.
There were conflicting reports about the victim.
READ ON: Afghan policewoman kills coalition contractor in Kabul
Pakistan’s Taliban, one of the world’s most feared militant groups, are preparing for a leadership change that could mean less violence against the state but more attacks against U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan, Pakistani military sources said.
Hakimullah Mehsud, a ruthless commander who has led the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) for the last three years, has lost operational control of the movement and the trust of his fighters, said a senior Pakistan army official based in the South Waziristan tribal region, the group’s stronghold.
The organization’s more moderate deputy leader, Wali-ur-Rehman, 40, is poised to succeed Mehsud, whose extreme violence has alienated enough of his fighters to significantly weaken him, the military sources told Reuters.
“Rehman is fast emerging as a consensus candidate to formally replace Hakimullah,” said the army official, who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the matter. “Now we may see the brutal commander replaced by a more pragmatic one for whom reconciliation with the Pakistani government has become a priority.”
EXCLUSIVE: New Pakistan Taliban chief emerging, will focus on Afghan fight
The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, General John Allen, is under investigation for alleged inappropriate communication with a woman at the center of the scandal involving former CIA Director David Petraeus, a senior U.S. defense official said on Tuesday.
The revelation threatens to fell another of the U.S. military’s biggest names and suggests that the scandal involving Petraeus - a retired four-star general who had Allen’s job in Afghanistan before moving to the CIA last year - could expand.
The U.S. official said the FBI uncovered between 20,000 and 30,000 pages of communications - mostly emails spanning from 2010 to 2012 - between Allen and Jill Kelley, who has been identified as a longtime friend of the Petraeus family and a Tampa, Florida, volunteer social liaison with military families at MacDill Air Force Base.
It was Kelley’s complaints about harassing emails from the woman with whom Petraeus had had an affair, Paula Broadwell, that prompted an FBI investigation that ultimately disclosed Petraeus’ involvement with Broadwell. Petraeus resigned from the CIA post on Friday.
The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, General John Allen, is under investigation for alleged inappropriate communication with a woman at the center of the scandal involving former CIA Director David Petraeus, a senior U.S. defense official said on Tuesday.
The revelation threatens to fell another of the U.S. military’s biggest names and suggests that the scandal involving Petraeus - a retired four-star general who had Allen’s job in Afghanistan before moving to the CIA last year - could expand.
READ ON: Top U.S. commander in Afghanistan under investigation, scandal widens
Members of the Afghan Local Police (ALP) showcase their skills during a graduation ceremony in Laghman province November 7, 2012. REUTERS/Parwiz
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