NATO

Source : Agencies | 25 Jul 2012

NATO trucks carrying supplies to Afghanistan were attacked in Pakistan on Tuesday following ongoing protests and anger in Pakistan over the July 3 reopening of the NATO supply routes and continued U.S. drone strikes which have escalated since May.

The attack on the trucks took place in the northwest area near Peshawar and are said to be the first such attack since the supply routes have been reopened following a tepid apology from Secretary Clinton.

By Matthew Rosenberg and Graham Bowley | NY Times | Kabul | 07 Jul 2012

The United States declared Afghanistan a major, non-NATO ally on Saturday with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton personally delivering the news of Afghanistan’s entry into a club that includes Israel, Japan, Pakistan and other close Asian and Middle Eastern allies.

By AFP | Kabul | 04 Jul 2012

The French military officially handed over control of the key Afghan province of Kapisa to local forces on Wednesday.

The transfer is an important stage in France’s withdrawal from the war-torn country, which new President Francois Hollande has accelerated by ordering the return of troops by the end of 2012, a year earlier than previously planned.

France is the fifth largest contributor to NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), which is due to pull out the vast majority of its 130,000 forces by the end of 2014.

Source : Agencies | 03 Jul 2012

NATO is urging the United Nations to enforce the peace plan for Syria endorsed by an international conference in Geneva.

NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said yesterday that the conflict in the Arab state was risking the stability of the entire region.

On Saturday, the conference endorsed a UN-brokered peace plan that calls for the creation of a transitional government in Damascus.

The Syrian opposition has already dismissed the plan because it did not call for President Bashar Assad to give up power.

Source : Agencies | Islamabad | 13 Jun 2012

Pakistan's civilian government should "bite the bullet" and re-open supply routes to NATO forces in Afghanistan in order to ease tensions with the United States, a senior US government official said yesterday.

The United States said on Monday it was withdrawing its team of negotiators from Pakistan without securing a long-sought deal on supply routes for the war in neighbouring Afghanistan, publicly exposing a diplomatic stalemate and deeply strained relations that appear at risk of deteriorating further.

Source : Agencies | 12 Jun 2012

The United States said on Monday it was withdrawing its team of negotiators from Pakistan without securing a deal on military supply routes for occupied Afghanistan.

Pakistan banned trucks from carrying supplies to the neighboring Afghanistan last year to protest a cross-border NATO air attack that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.

Source : Reuters | Kabul | 11 Jun 2012

NATO will not conduct any more air strikes in residential areas, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said, after 18 civilians, most of them women and children, were killed in a recent raid provoking fresh rage against foreign forces.

The commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, General John Allen, has apologized for the killings in Logar province during a joint operation with Afghan forces on Wednesday and promised an investigation into circumstances leading to the air strike.

Source : Agencies | Kabul | 09 Jun 2012

The commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan apologised on Friday for killing civilians, including women and children gathering for a wedding, in an air strike this week that has stoked Afghan anger against foreign forces in the country.

NATO previously said the coalition and Afghan forces called for the air strike after they came under fire during an operation to capture a Taliban commander in the Baraki Barak district of Logar province.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai said 18 civilians were killed.

Source : Al Jazeera | Kabul | 07 Jun 2012

Afghanistan has been rocked by two violent incidents, the first resulting in 18 apparent civilian deaths in a pre-dawn NATO missile strike in Logar in the east, and the second involving at least 22 deaths in two suicide attacks in the afternoon in Kandahar in the south.

In a third fatal incident on Wednesday, NATO acknowledged the loss of two soldiers in a helicopter crash in the eastern province of Ghazni.

Source : AFP | Chicago | 21 May 2012

NATO leaders gathered in Chicago yesterday to chart a path out of Afghanistan as war-weary Western nations seek to ensure Afghanistan can hold Taleban at bay when foreign troops withdraw.

President Barack Obama hosts the summit in his hometown, Chicago, a day after leaders of major industrialized nations tackled Europe's debt crisis.

The shadow cast by fiscal pressures in Europe and elsewhere will follow leaders to the talks on Afghanistan.