US may leave 10,000 troops after April 2014

The White House is considering a plan to leave around 10,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan after 2014, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Photo: Free Presser

According to the report, Gen. John Allen, the commander of U.S. and international forces in Afghanistan, has proposed to keep between 6,000 and 15,000 U.S. troops in the country following the end of combat operations in 2014. The plan would significantly differ from the way the U.S. approached its withdrawal from Iraq - where America's complete withdrawal has often been blamed for instability.

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The New York Times reports that Gen. Allen is expected to submit his plan to draw down the 66,000 American troops who are currently stationed in the country as one of his last acts as top commander in Afghanistan.

Read more about it at: Huffington Post
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Night curfew imposed on US troops in Japan after rape arrests

The commander of U.S. Forces Japan imposed a night curfew on military personnel on Oct. 19 after two U.S. servicemen were arrested on suspicion of raping a Japanese woman on the southern island of Okinawa.

The arrests come at a time when public opinion in Okinawa is at odds with Tokyo for allowing the U.S. deployment of Osprey hybrid aircraft on the island despite lingering concerns about their safety.

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Friction over U.S. bases on Okinawa intensified after the 1995 rape of a 12-year-old Japanese schoolgirl by three U.S. servicemen. The case sparked widespread protests by Okinawans, who had long resented the American presence due to crime, noise and deadly accidents.

Read more about it at Asahi Shimbun

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US soldier shoots Afghan children dead

Western forces shot dead 16 civilians including nine children in southern Kandahar province on Sunday, Afghan officials said, in a rampage that witnesses said was carried out by American soldiers who were laughing and appeared drunk.

Witnesses told Reuters they saw a group of U.S. soldiers arrive at their village in Kandahar's Panjwayi district at around 2 am, enter homes and open fire.

One Haji Samad lamented: "I saw that all 11 of my relatives were killed, including my children and grandchildren." 

Read details of the gory incident: Huffington Post

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India reject reports of US troops on its soil

India has denied as "factually incorrect" a report that US special forces were stationed in the country as part of counter-terrorism cooperation.

Media reports quoted top Pentagon commander Admiral Robert Willard as telling a Congressional hearing on Thursday that US special forces teams were stationed in five South Asian countries, including India and Sri Lanka.

"The report is factually incorrect in so far as the reference to India is concerned," Indian defence ministry spokesman Sitanshu Kar said in a statement late on Friday.

Read more: Google/AFP

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Last U.S. troops leave Iraq - ending war?

[ via Reuters ] 18 Dec

Last of US Troops leave Iraq who fought a war that devastated once a thriving Iraq to rubble - Photo Reuters

The last convoy of U.S. soldiers pulled out of Iraq on Sunday, ending nearly nine years of war that cost almost 4,500 American and tens of thousands of Iraqi lives and left a country still grappling with political uncertainty. 

The war launched in March 2003 with missiles striking Baghdad to oust dictator Saddam Hussein closes with a fragile democracy still facing insurgents, sectarian tensions and the challenge of defining its place in the Arab region.

For Iraqis, the U.S. departure brings a sense of sovereignty but feeds nagging fears their country may slide once again into the kind of sectarian violence that killed thousands of people at its peak in 2006-2007.

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