Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources The New York Times
Afghanistan
Updated: Dec. 16, 2010
THE LATEST:
- * A review of President Obama’s strategy for the war in Afghanistan concludes that American forces can begin withdrawing on schedule in July 2011, despite finding uneven signs of progress in the year since the president announced the deployment of an additional 30,000 troops.
- * Two new classified intelligence reports offered a more negative assessment and say there is a limited chance of success unlessPakistan hunts down insurgents operating from havens on its Afghan border.
- * Confidential diplomatic cables obtained by WikiLeaks and released in December 2010 offered a fresh sense of the pervasive nature, overwhelming scale, and dispiriting challenge that corruption, fueled by a booming illicit narcotics industry, poses to American officials who have made shoring up support for the Afghan government a cornerstone of America’s counterinsurgency strategy in Afghanistan.
- * Following months of secret talks between Afghan and Taliban leaders to end the war, a participant believed to be Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Mansour, one of the most senior commanders in the Taliban movement, was unmasked as an impostor in November. The high-level discussions conducted with the assistance of NATO appeared to have achieved little.
OVERVIEW
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country north and west of Pakistan and east of Iran. Its strategic location has long granted it a pivotal role in the region, while its terrain and population have stymied would-be conquerors for centuries. The country's population is 34 million. Its capital is Kabul.
The United States has been militarily involved in Afghanistan since 2001, when it led an invasion after the Sept. 11 attacks by Al Qaeda. The group had been given safe haven in the country by theTaliban, the extremist Islamic group that had seized control in 1996 after years of civil war. The 2001 invasion succeeded in dislodging Al Qaeda and removing the Taliban from power, but not in eradicating either group. Fueled by profits from the opium trade and dissatisfaction with the weak and often corrupt new Afghan government, the Taliban has made a steady comeback, particularly in the Pashtun regions of the south and east where the group originated.
Articles
Taliban Suicide Bomber Kills Police Official and 16 Others
A suicide bomber killed himself and 16 others, including a senior border police commander, in an attack at a bathhouse in a southern Afghan city.
January 7, 2011U.S. Suspends 2 Contractors That Failed to Pay Afghans
The suspension bars Bennett-Fouch Associates of Michigan and K5 Global from receiving American military contracts for at least five years.
January 6, 2011More Than 1,000 Extra Marines To Be Deployed in Afghanistan
The Marines will be sent mostly to Kandahar province, as the United States tries to solidify progress in areas of the south before troop reductions.
January 6, 2011Afghan Police Officer Killed by Blast in Downtown Kabul
A bomb exploded in downtown Kabul, just 200 yards from the Defense Ministry and less than a mile from the presidential palace.
January 4, 2011
Judges Set to Rule on Afghan Election Complaints Within 2 Weeks
A panel the Supreme Court set up said it would issue rulings within two weeks on complaints of election abuse in September’s vote.
January 3, 2011U.S. Military Deaths in Afghanistan
The Department of Defense has identified 1,431 American service members who have died as a part of the Afghan war and related operations.
January 2, 2011For Many Returning Veterans, Home Is Where the Trouble Is
The web of support for ex-soldiers needs to be wider and stronger.
January 2, 2011Homeland Security Sending More Agents to Fight Afghan Smuggling
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said that her department planned to triple the number of agents in Afghanistan to curb smuggling.
January 1, 2011
Warnings Missed Before Soldier’s Lonely Afghan Death
Many questions remain about Staff Sgt. David Senft’s death and whether the Army could have prevented it.
January 1, 2011Taliban Official Killed in Afghanistan
Coalition forces killed the top-ranking Taliban official in restive Kunduz Province during an overnight raid, according to Afghan police and a local governor.
December 31, 2010Taliban Official Killed in Afghanistan
Coalition forces killed the top-ranking Taliban official in restive Kunduz Province during an overnight raid, according to Afghan police and a local governor.
December 31, 2010
An Election Gone Wrong Fuels Tension in Kabul
Afghan officials and losing candidates warn that seating the new Parliament could fuel the insurgency and even the kind of ethnic strife that might lead to civil war.
December 30, 2010
Afghans and NATO Diverge Sharply in Accounts of Deadly Raid
A shootout at the headquarters of the Afghan Tiger Group, a supplier of vehicles to the U.S. military, left two Afghan guards dead and two wounded.
December 29, 2010
Insurgents Set Aside Rivalries on Afghan Border
Rival militant groups on both sides of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border are teaming up, military officials say.
December 29, 2010Kandahar Car Bomb Explodes Near Afghan Police Station
The explosion, which killed one and wounded 26 others, occurred in front of Kabul Bank, according to authorities.
December 28, 2010States of Conflict: An Update
It is fairly straightforward to summarize the past year in Iraq and Pakistan, but a more complicated matter for Afghanistan.
December 27, 2010Haqqani Network Quelled, at Least Temporarily, by Raids
The Haqqani network has not conducted a complex, large-scale attack in Kabul for seven months.
December 27, 2010
David Rohde’s ‘Rope and a Prayer’ - Review
A firsthand account of a Times journalist’s war-zone assignment gone devastatingly wrong in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
December 27, 2010
Taliban Challenge U.S. in Eastern Afghanistan
American forces are trying to persuade Afghan villagers to help root out the Taliban at great personal risk.
December 26, 2010
Book Review - A Rope and a Prayer - By David Rohde and Kristen Mulvihill
Chronicling a Times reporter’s captivity in Taliban strongholds — and his wife’s efforts to free him.
December 26, 2010
Joao Silva: Bearing Witness to History
Why photographers like The Times’s Joao Silva, who lost his legs in Afghanistan this year, risk their lives for their profession.
December 26, 2010NATO Raid in Kabul Kills 2 Afghan Guards
The troops, acting on apparently faulty intelligence, killed two private security guards early Friday that could lead to renewed criticisms of foreign forces by President Hamid Karzai.
December 25, 2010Deployed Football Coach a Finalist for Coach of Year
Clayton Kendrick-Holmes of Maritime College in the Bronx is one of five finalists for the Liberty Mutual Coach of the Year Award in Division III.
December 24, 2010Military and Relief Aid: When the Lines Blur
Readers respond to an article about the rising number of relief worker deaths in Afghanistan.
December 24, 2010Another Christmas in Kabul
Five days in Afghanistan offered frequent reminders of the overwhelming challenges that remain in the war.
December 24, 2010SEARCH 8756 ARTICLES:
Notes from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq and other areas of conflict in the post-9/11 era.
It's Iraq but It's Not, Part 2
The Islam That Hard-Liners Hate
Follow the latest Afghanistan updates on The Times’s news blog.
Revisiting Holbrooke's Last Remarks
U.S. Rescuers May Have Killed British Captive in Afghanistan
Headlines Around the Web
What's This?
CLUSTERSTOCK
JANUARY 7, 2011
This Is The Guy Playing Match-Maker To JP Morgan, Silicon Valley And Afghanistan (JPM, IBM, NT, JDSU)
Multimedia
Afghanistan: A Look Back at 2010
Alissa J. Rubin, Kabul bureau chief, looks back at the major military campaigns -- and forward at the prospects for progress in the coming year.
The Trials of Leadership
Just two months after taking command of Alpha Company, First Battalion, 87th Infantry, Capt. Adrian Bonenberger faces a major test of his leadership.
Panoramas: Views From a Year at War
Photographer Damon Winter is following the lives of soldiers in Afghanistan.
Blast in Kandahar Kills Six
A van exploded beside a joint outpost in southern Afghanistan on Sunday, killing six Americans.
‘The Great Game: Afghanistan’
Images from “The Great Game: Afghanistan,” a seven-hour cycle of a dozen short plays by different authors.
Afghanistan Navigator
A list of resources from around the Web about Afghanistan as selected by researchers and editors of The New York Times.
- Overview of the Afghanistan and Pakistan Annual Review: Dec. 16, 2010
- Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs
- International Security Assistance Force (ISAF)
- NATO mission in Afghanistan
- United States Embassy in Afghanistan
- C.I.A World Factbook
- Maps of Afghanistan
- University of Texas Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection
- Operation Enduring Freedom Casualties
- iCasualties.org
- World Bank Country Profile
- World Health Organization Country Profile
- United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA)
- Afghanistan Digital Library
- New York University
ADVOCACY GROUPS AND BLOGS
- Human Rights Watch
- The Afghanistan Analysts Network
- Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA)
- Registan
- Afghan Lord
- Exploring the Heart of Asia: the Narrative of Afghanistan
- Ghosts of Alexander
- Sanjar
OTHER COVERAGE
- The AfPak Channel
- Foreign Policy
- BBC Country Profile
- Ongoing Coverage
- The Guardian (UK)
- Washington Post Country Guide
- National Geographic Country Guide
BOOKS
- Descent Into Chaos: The United States and the Failure of Nation Building in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Central Asia
- By Ahmed Rashid
- Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia
- By Ahmed Rashid
- Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and bin Laden, From the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001
- By Steve Coll
- The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11
- By Lawrence Wright
- The Punishment of Virtue: Inside Afghanistan After the Taliban
- By Sarah Chayes
- Opium Season: A Year on the Afghan Frontier
- By Joel Hafvenstein
- A Thousand Splendid Suns
- By Khaled Hosseini
- Kabul Beauty School: An American Woman Goes Behind the Veil
- By Deborah Rodriguez and Kristin Ohlson
- The Places in Between
- By Rory Stewart
- Come Back to Afghanistan: A California Teenager's Story
- By Said Hyder Akbar and Susan Burton
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