Taliban

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US, Brits Press Plans for Taliban Talks

(Newser) - British commanders backed by US officials aim to use the success of recent offensives to persuade mid-level Taliban leaders to come in for talks and give up the fight, the Guardian reports. Conditions are right for the "second-tier" leaders who control large numbers of fighters in southern Afghanistan to...

Taliban's No. 2 a Fierce, Intelligent Opponent of US

Mullah Omar's lieutenant may be really running the insurgency

(Newser) - Though most Americans know of Mullah Omar, head of the Taliban’s insurgency in Afghanistan, few know his capable lieutenant, Mullah Baradar. As a high-profile US target, Omar has kept a low profile over the last 3 years—while Baradar commands day-to-day operations, Newsweek reports. But Baradar’s cunning leadership...

Taliban Scarier Than Iraq Enemy
 Taliban Scarier Than Iraq Enemy 

Taliban Scarier Than Iraq Enemy

(Newser) - Taliban forces in Afghanistan are bolder, better organized, and more tenacious than the deadliest Iraqi insurgents, a war-hardened Marine told the New York Times. “In Iraq, they’d hit you and run,” said Sgt. Jacob Tambunga, who spent three tours fighting in Anbar Province. “But these guys...

Suicide Attackers Strike Afghan City

(Newser) - Taliban fighters wearing suicide vests and armed with AK-47 rifles and rocket-propelled grenades attacked the main police station today in the southeast city of Khost, triggering hours-long gunbattles that left seven militants dead and 14 people wounded, officials said. The attack began in the afternoon when at least six fighters...

GI's Capture Fuels Desertion Controversy

Lawmakers rip Fox analyst; blogger says Bergdahl left unarmed

(Newser) - With some speculating that the US soldier kidnapped by the Taliban deserted his Afghanistan post, conservative media are hot on the trail. Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl “walked off (his base) with a water bottle and (a military ration pack) on some kind of he-man expedition,” a military blogger tells...

US Afghan Surge Angers Pakistan

(Newser) - The American offensive in southern Afghanistan is sparking serious tensions with Pakistan, the New York Times reports. Pakistani officials fear that the surge will push Taliban militants into its border region, triggering a rise in militancy that it will be ill-equipped to tackle without shifting troops from the Indian border....

Taliban Hostage's Hometown Stayed Quiet on Kidnapping

(Newser) - The Taliban's capture of an American soldier in Afghanistan is old news for some residents of his hometown, but they kept quiet out of concern for his safety, the AP reports. The family of Bowe R. Bergdahl asked neighbors and other community members in Hailey, Idaho, not to discuss his...

Pentagon IDs Soldier Caught by Taliban
Pentagon IDs Soldier Caught by Taliban
see taliban video

Pentagon IDs Soldier Caught by Taliban

He may have been visiting a woman when caught: officials

(Newser) - Pentagon officials have confirmed that Bowe Bergdahl, 23, is the captured US soldier seen this weekend in a Taliban video, ABC News reports. Bergdahl says in the video that he was caught after falling behind in a foot patrol, but Defense Department officials say he may have left his Paktika...

Taliban Releases Video of US Soldier

(Newser) - The Taliban released a video today of a captured American soldier who went missing from his base in eastern Afghanistan on June 30. The Pentagon has not publicly identified him yet. The soldier is shown in the 28-minute video with his head shaved and dressed in a nondescript, gray outfit....

Taliban Threatens to Kill Captured American Soldier

(Newser) - The Taliban says it will execute a captured American soldier if the US does not withdraw from two districts in southeastern Afghanistan, the Voice of America reports. A Taliban rep said today the soldier is healthy but will be killed if operations in Paktika and Ghazni continue. The fate of...

A Baptist and a Mullah Team Up to Fight Taliban

US captain urges Afghan colonel to show faith to locals

(Newser) - A Baptist Army officer has teamed up with an Afghan mullah to fight Taliban propaganda that calls the Afghan army godless. “The only way we can keep people from becoming Taliban is by promoting the Muslim nature of the Afghan National Army,” says the mullah, Lt. Col. Abdul...

Afghanistan Troops Face Smarter, Fiercer IEDs

(Newser) - The war in Afghanistan is getting deadlier for both coalition troops and Afghan forces, reports James Dao in the New York Times, mostly because of an increase in homemade bomb attacks—465  in May alone. The IEDs—improvised explosive devices—are getting more sophisticated as well as more common, and...

Obama: Probe Alleged Afghan Mass Grave

Prez reacts to report that 2K Taliban POWs were killed

(Newser) - President Obama has ordered his national security team to investigate reports that US allies were responsible for the deaths of as many as 2,000 Taliban prisoners of war during the opening days of the war in Afghanistan. Obama told CNN in an interview that aired today that he doesn't...

US Quashed Inquiry Into 2001 Afghan Mass Murder

(Newser) - The Bush administration stonewalled human rights organizations and branches of the US government that sought an investigation into the alleged mass murder of Taliban prisoners in Afghanistan in 2001, the New York Times reports. As many as 1,500 people may have died in the incident, under the command of...

Taliban Truck Bomb Kills 13 Kids in Kabul

(Newser) - A massive truck bomb near Kabul killed 25 people today, including 13 primary school students, and sent pieces of the vehicle flying more than a mile from the blast, reports the AP. The truck overturned in the road last night, and when police arrived this morning to clear the way...

Taliban Claim to Have 'Drunk' US Captive; 7 Soldiers Killed

Taliban also confirms capture of missing US soldier

(Newser) - Seven American troops lost their lives in the stepped-up battle against the Taliban today, the deadliest day for US forces in Afghanistan in nearly a year. The Taliban also confirmed on its website that it is holding an American soldier thought to be in enemy hands. “Five days ago,...

Mullahs to Marines: Earn Our Trust or Leave

Elders tell American forces to earn their trust or leave

(Newser) - In their first meeting with local elders in the southern Afghanistan village they’re trying to rid of the Taliban, US Marines received a rather unusual greeting: Earn our trust or leave. Mullahs delivered the stern warning after the American forces promised not to leave until they improved the lives...

Refugee Crisis Opens Doors for Pakistan's Secluded Women

Women uprooted by fighting gain new access to health care, education

(Newser) - Women's leaders in Pakistan have found an unexpected silver lining in the country's refugee crisis, the Globe & Mail reports. A million women have been forced from their homes by the fighting, upending the Pashtun code of honor that forces women to spend almost all their time secluded in family...

2 US Troops Killed in Attack on Afghan Base

30 Taliban killed in gun battle at base near Pakistan border

(Newser) - Two American troops were killed when militants attacked a base in eastern Afghanistan today, exploding a truck loaded with gravel outside the gates and sparking a 2-hour gunbattle, the AP reports. US forces called in airstrikes to end the clash, killing over 30 insurgents, the governor of Paktika province says....

Taliban Buys Kids for Suicide Bombings

(Newser) - The Taliban is buying children as young as 7 and turning them into suicide bombers, the Washington Times reports. The going rate is $7,000 to $14,000, a huge amount in Pakistan, where where the average income is $2,600. Pakistani and US officials lay blame for the practice...

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