NATO commander meets Pak, Afghan Army chiefs

The Commander of NATO-led forces in Afghanistan met Pakistan and Afghanistan army chiefs on Sunday.

The meeting was held in garrison city of Rawalpindi, Pakistan to discuss the border security, almost six months after US air strikes that killed 24 soldiers.

US General John Allen, Pakistani Army Chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani and Afghan Army Chief General Sher Muhammad Karimi led their respective delegations at talks Sunday in the garrison city of Rawalpindi.

“Talks focused on border control measures, and mechanisms put in place to avoid untoward incidents on both sides of the Pak-Afghan Border,” a Pakistan military statement said.

Read more: SANA

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Al-Qaida Bomber Was Double Agent

It has been reported by the U.S. media that a man sent by al-Qaida's branch in Yemen to blow up a U.S.-bound airliner was actually a double agent working for the United States, who infiltrated the terror network and volunteered to carry out the suicide attack.

Unidentified American and foreign intelligence officials provided details of the bomb plot. They told how the would-be bomber turned over his sophisticated explosive device to U.S. and Saudi officials, and also provided information that led to a successful airstrike against an al-Qaida leader in Yemen.

The New York Times said the details emerging Tuesday night amounted to “an extraordinary intelligence coup.” 

Read more: VOA

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Kabul siege: Karzai labels it a NATO Intelligence Failure

Afghan president Hamid Karzai said on Monday that a coordinated Taliban attack showed a "failure" by Afghan intelligence and especially by Nato, as heavy street fighting between insurgents and security forces came to an end after 18 hours. 

Battles which broke out at midday on Sunday gripped the city's central districts through the night, with large explosions and gunfire lighting up alleys and streets. 

"The fact terrorists were able to enter Kabul and other provinces was an intelligence failure for us and especially for Nato," Karzai's office said. 

Read more: The Times of India

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U.S. Commandos can Raid Afghan Homes without Permission

Reports of the demise of the Afghanistan War’s signature tactic are premature. U.S. Special Operations Forces will still conduct “night raids” on Afghan homes — sometimes without the prior approval of the Afghan government.

If special operations forces are targeting an insurgent as he travels, or planning to ambush a Taliban camp not suspected of being located inside a civilian’s home, no warrants are required.

But even raids on Afghan homes don’t always require an Afghan warrant ahead of time.

Read more: Wired

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Three foreign soldiers killed by Afghan forces

Three foreign soldiers, including two Britons, were shot dead by Afghan security forces personnel on Monday in the latest round of so-called insider killings which have raised deep concerns about the reliability of NATO's local allies and their ability to keep the peace. 

Insider attacks have mounted as tension between Afghanistan and its foreign backers rises over a series of incidents, including the burning of Korans at a NATO base and a massacre of 17 villagers for which a U.S. soldier has been charged.

In Monday's attacks, an Afghan army soldier killed two British soldiers at their headquarters in southern Afghanistan, Britain and NATO officials said, while a local policeman shot dead another foreign soldier in the east.

Read details: The Malaysia Star

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No US disciplinary action seen over Salala attack

The US military is not planning to discipline any of its forces over a cross-border skirmish last year that left 24 Pakistani soldiers dead and plunged Washington-Islamabad ties to their lowest point in years, a US military official said on Saturday.         

A US military investigation last year had already exonerated American troops operating in Afghanistan from inappropriate use of force against the Pakistani forces – even as the US military acknowledged some of the blame in the incident.

The US military official, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, did not offer further details about the subsequent decision not to discipline US forces.

Read details: Express Tribune

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Robert Bales To Be Charged With 17 Counts Of Murder In Afghan Shooting Massacre

Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales will be charged with 17 counts of murder, assault and a string of other offenses in the massacre of Afghan villagers as they slept, a U.S. official said.

The 38-year-old soldier and father of two who lives in Lake Tapps, Wash., is charged with going on a shooting rampage in two villages near his Southern Afghanistan military post in the early hours of March 11, gunning down nine Afghan children and eight adults and burning some of the victims' bodies.

Read more: Huffington Post

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Army veteran shot landlady dead 'because he didn't kill anyone while serving in Afghanistan'

A former soldier who served in Afghanistan may have shot his landlady to experience what it was like to kill someone, a court was told Tuesday, 19 March 2012.

Aaron Wilkinson, who was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress after his tour of duty, blasted mother-of-two Judith Garnett, 52, to death at point-blank range.

He had become ‘obsessed’ with his six months in Afghanistan, where he suffered a minor wound but ‘seemed disappointed at not having fired a shot’ there, jurors were told.

Read more: Mail Online

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Robert Bales, Afghan Killing Suspect, Has not been Charged even after a week of his gruesome act

Sgt Bales - has not been charged so far

With formal charges looming against his client within days, the lawyer for an Army sergeant suspected in the horrific nighttime slaughter of 16 Afghan villagers flew to Kansas and was preparing for his first face-to-face meeting with the 10-year veteran.

John Henry Browne of Seattle said he planned to meet Monday with Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, who is being held in an isolated cell at Fort Leavenworth's military prison.

Bales, 38, hasn't been charged in the March 11 shootings, which have endangered relations between the U.S. and Afghanistan and threaten to upend U.S. policy over the decade-old war. But formal charges are expected to be filed within a week and if the case goes to court the trial will be held in the United States, said a legal expert with the U.S. military familiar with the investigation.

Read more: The Huffington Post

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Afghanistan massacre suspect named as Sgt Robert Bales

The US soldier accused of killing 16 Afghan civilians in a massacre that has undermined relations with Kabul has been named as Staff Sgt Robert Bales.

Senior US officials told the BBC the name of the suspect as he was heading back to the US to face charges.

He has now arrived at a maximum security military prison in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, after being flown from Kuwait, the US Army said.

He will be held in solitary confinement pending charges, the Army added.

Read more: BBC News

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Taliban vow revenge for US soldier's shooting spree

Afghanistan's Taliban insurgents on Monday vowed revenge against "sick minded American savages" for the weekend rampage by a US soldier who killed 16 villagers in their homes.

The Taliban would "take revenge from the invaders and the savage murderers for every single martyr", the Islamists said in a statement on their website.

The US soldier walked off his base and broke into the homes of villagers in Kandahar province's Panjwayi district before dawn Sunday, killing 16 people including women and children.

Read more: France24

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Pentagon set to investigate colonel's criticism on US progress in Afghanistan

The Pentagon has launched an investigation into an independent report written by an Army lieutenant colonel for possible security violations, military officials said Wednesday.

In an article published Sunday by the Armed Forces Journal titled "Truth, Lies and Afghanistan: How military leaders have let us down," Army Lt. Col. Daniel Davis, who spent a year in Afghanistan delivering equipment to U.S. forces, strongly suggests that military leaders are lying about progress in the war in Afghanistan.

“What I saw bore no resemblance to rosy official statements by U.S. military leaders about conditions on the ground,” he wrote in the article.

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US News

The Fire Within

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