NATO

Source : AFP | Kabul | 19 May 2012

A Taleban rocket attack on a NATO base in the eastern Afghan province of Kunar killed two international soldiers and wounded six, officials said yesterday.

It came a day after gunmen dressed in Afghan police uniforms and wearing suicide vests stormed a government compound in the southwestern province of Farah, killing seven people and wounding 12 others.

The Taleban this month announced the start of their annual spring offensive, a campaign of bombings and attacks that picks up every year as the weather warms.

Source : AFP | Washington | 19 May 2012

France’s President Francois Hollande used his White House debut yesterday to restate his intention to get French combat troops home from Afghanistan this year — breaking with NATO’s 2014 schedule.

Hollande met President Barack Obama for the first time since taking office three days ago, ahead of a testing weekend of international summits, with G8 leaders at Camp David and NATO chiefs at a 61-nation gathering in Chicago.

By : Zafar Mahmood Sheikh | Islamabad | 16 May 2012

Pakistan has in principle decided to restore NATO supplies after six months of suspension to get the much-awaited financial assistance from the US as the PPP government prepares to present its last budget before the general elections.

After getting the go-ahead, the Defense Coordination Committee and the Federal Cabinet formed a committee to finalize modalities for new terms of engagement with the US while keeping the army on board.

Source : HRW | Brussels | 14 May 2012

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has failed to acknowledge dozens of civilian casualties from air strikes during its 2011 Libya campaign, and has not investigated possible unlawful attacks, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.

By Amie Ferris-Rotman | Reuters | 14 May 2012

Gulam recalls the evening she fled her home in northern Afghanistan on foot, running with her teen daughters under the cloak of darkness to avoid cooking a dinner for 20 Taleban insurgents.

"This Taleb burst through my door and demanded I cook for them. But I had no money, and I was scared they would take my daughters," Gulam said, pulling a stripy shawl tightly around her gaunt and wrinkled face.

By Reuters | Kabul | 14 May 2012

Insurgent attacks killed three NATO troops in Afghanistan on Saturday while a fourth died of non-battle related injuries, the international coalition said. A roadside bomb in the northwest killed four Afghan policemen.

All four members of the US-led military coalition died in southern Afghanistan, where much of the fighting in the more than 10-year conflict has been concentrated, the alliance said in a statement.

By Declan Walsh, Eric Schmitt and Steven Lee Myers | New York Times | Islamabad | 28 Apr 2012

The first concentrated high-level talks aimed at breaking a five-month diplomatic deadlock between the United States and Pakistan ended in failure on Friday over Pakistani demands for an unconditional apology from the Obama administration for an airstrike. The White House, angered by the recent spectacular Taliban attacks in Afghanistan, refuses to apologize.

Source : Cihan | Ankara | 21 Apr 2012

Turkey has blocked Israel’s participation in NATO’s upcoming Chicago summit in a sign of Turkey’s determination to maintain demands that stemmed from a deadly ship raid.

Turkish and Israeli relations worsened in May 2010 and have remained strained since then after Israeli naval commandos stormed the Mavi Marmara, a ship carrying humanitarian aid to break Israel’s Gaza blockade, killing nine Turkish civilians.

By Anne Gearan | AP | Brussels | 18 Apr 2012

Several NATO allies promised Wednesday to underwrite Afghanistan’s armed forces after foreign troops depart, as the United States and other nations plan to pull away from the front lines in Afghanistan next year.

US officials were at pains to show that the pressure to close down an unpopular war will not leave Afghanistan’s fragile government and unsteady military in the lurch.

“There is no change whatsoever in the timeline,” NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen insisted.

Source : Al Jazeera and Agencies | 17 Apr 2012

Suicide bombers have struck across Afghanistan in co-ordinated attacks, with explosions and gunfire rocking the diplomatic area of Kabul as Taliban fighters took over buildings and tried to enter parliament.

A joint operation by Afghan and international forces to displace the attackers from the buildings they had occupied continued into Monday morning, with Kabul residents reporting that the sound of machine guns and heavy weapons could be heard through the night.