Troubled Afghan Mission Under Review

US calls on NATO allies for reinforcements

(NEWSER) - The US will pressure its NATO allies to commit more troops to Afghanistan, Reuters reports, but won't send more Americans, beyond the 3,200-Marine surge ordered last month. The need for increased manpower in the 6-year-old conflict resurfaced this week when Canada's prime minister threatened to withdraw his nation's 2,500 soldiers unless they're supported by more NATO forces in the embattled southern region of the country. More»

Al-Qaeda bosses living comfortably in Pakistan, says NATO insider

(NEWSER) - “Nobody in al-Qaeda is living in a cave”—instead, Osama bin Laden and other top figures are likely to be living rather comfortably in houses in Pakistan, under the protection of locals and some Pakistani intelligence, a NATO official tells CNN . Bin Laden has likely been roaming from Pakistan’s far northwest to the Kurram Valley near Tora Bora in Afghanistan in recent years. More»

Day after Petraeus warned of more violence

(NEWSER) - Taliban insurgents attacked a NATO base in Afghanistan this morning in a commando-style raid that caused no allied casualties. Gunmen set off a car bomb and fired rocket-propelled grenades, attacking NATO facilities at an airport near the Pakistani border from multiple directions; several suicide bombers were killed in the attack. The raid shows the increasing sophistication of Taliban attacks and comes only a day after Gen. David Petraeus warned of an intensified "industrial strength insurgency" in Afghanistan in the coming months, BBC reports. More»

Insurgents his air force facility, bus headed to wedding

(AP) - A suicide bomber killed seven people near a major air force complex in northwest Pakistan today, while an explosion killed 17, including three children, on a bus heading to a wedding elsewhere in the region. The attacks are the latest in a surge of militant strikes this month, coinciding with a major army offensive against insurgents along the Afghan border. More»

(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 reconnect with the Afghan government, say commanders. The plan has even launched talk in London and Washington of an exit strategy. More»