Afghanistan

NOVANEWS With many efforts set on preventing deeper war in Syria, latest Afghan violence a reminder of other bloody conflict at heart of US foreign policy - Common Dreams Afghanistan security forces take up a position after an attack on the U.S. Consulate in Herat early Friday. (Photo: Aref Karimi / AFP-Getty Images)Though a steady focus on Syria may have left some forgetting that the U.S. remains involved in another civil war on the Asian continent, a Taliban attack on a U.S. consulate in the west of Afghanistan on Friday may send a bloody reminder. According to reports, an armed group of Taliban-supported fighters—in what was described as a "brazen commando-style attack"—attempted to storm the U.S. consulate in Herat early Friday morning, detonating a car bomb and firing on security...

NOVANEWS The video that surfaced in 2012 resulted in heightened tensions between Washington and Kabul [File Screengrab: Al Jazeera] A US Marine sergeant who was videotaped urinating on dead Taliban fighters in Afghanistan has been demoted to the rank of corporal after pleading guilty, the Marine Corps has said. Sergeant Robert Richards was the last of eight Marines to be punished in connection with the incident, which took place on July 27, 2011, during a counter-insurgency operation in Helmand province in Afghanistan. The videotape showed four Marines wearing camouflage combat uniforms urinating on three corpses as one of the Marines joked, “Have a nice day buddy.” The video became public in early 2012 and was one of a series of offensive incidents at the time that roused Afghan ire and...

NOVANEWS Tony Capaccio, Bloomberg Supporters of the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan have been getting US military contracts, and US officials are citing “due process rights” as a reason not to cancel the agreements, according to an independent agency monitoring spending. The US Army Suspension and Debarment Office has declined to act in 43 such cases, John Sopko, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, said today in a letter accompanying a quarterly report to Congress. Sopko said: I am deeply troubled that the US military can pursue, attack, and even kill terrorists and their supporters, but that some in the US government believe we cannot prevent these same people from receiving a government contract. The 236-page report and Sopko’s summary provide one of t...

NOVANEWS Another dog and pony show for the American people, as Obama likely has no intentions of pulling troops from Afghanistan by yearend 2014. WASHINGTON, DC – Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai (L) and U.S. President Barack Obama hold a joint news conference in the East Room of the White House January 11, 2013 in Washington, DC. Karzai is in Washington for face-to-face meetings with Obama and senior members of his administration about the future of American commitment to Afghanistan and when troops may leave the country after more than 10 years of war. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) By Shepard Ambellas WASHINGTON — Hollow threats made Tuesday, by U.S. and European officials were likely intended to intimidate the Afghani President Hamid Karzai, for his spotty negotiation pr...

NOVANEWS Agence France-Presse Washington: The US military has destroyed more than 77,000 metric tons of military equipment - including mine-resistant troop transport vehicles - as it prepares to withdraw from Afghanistan in late 2014, the Washington Post reported today. More than 7-billion-dollar worth of military equipment is no longer needed, or would be too expensive to ship back to the United States, and much of it is being shredded and sold locally as scrap metal, the Post reported, citing US military officials. Donating the gear to the Afghan government is difficult because of complicated bureaucratic rules, plus US officials do not believe the Afghans could maintain the gear. Plus, it would also be too expensive to sell or donate the gear to allied nations because of the cost o...