Afghanistan war

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More Witness Interviews in Kabul Bombing Ordered

US general says he wants new accounts of airport attack taken seriously

(Newser) - For the first time, almost 20 eyewitnesses to the bombing at the Kabul airport as US forces were leaving Afghanistan will be able to tell their stories to Pentagon investigators. Gen. Michael Kurilla ordered the interviews of US personnel who were wounded in the August 2021 attack and whose public...

Afghan Immigrant Who Helped US Forces Killed as Lyft Driver

Nasrat Ahmad Yar, a 31-year-old father of four, was fatally shot in DC

(Newser) - A 31-year-old father of four driving for Lyft was shot to death in Washington, DC, during an apparent botched robbery, say police. And the death of Nasrat Ahmad Yar around midnight on Monday has another tragic aspect: Ahmad Yar is from Afghanistan, where he worked as an interpreter for US...

Judge Says Decorated Australian Veteran Committed War Crimes

Ben Roberts-Smith loses defamation case

(Newser) - Ben Roberts-Smith, Australia's most decorated living veteran, has lost his defamation case against three newspapers that reported that he had committed war crimes in Afghanistan. After a year-long, high-profile trial, federal Justice Anthony Besanko determined that the newspapers have proven that the former Special Air Services had committed war...

Veterans Testify of 'Catastrophic' Afghanistan Exit

'No one was held accountable'

(Newser) - Active-service members and veterans provided firsthand testimony Wednesday about the chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan, describing in harrowing detail the carnage and death they witnessed on the ground while imploring Congress to help the allies left behind. Former Marine Sgt. Tyler Vargas-Andrews testified to the House Foreign Affairs Committee about...

Afghans Oppose US Order on Frozen Funds
Afghans
Protest
Biden Order

Afghans Protest Biden Order

Demonstrators oppose decision on frozen funds, demand compensation for war deaths

(Newser) - Demonstrators in Afghanistan's capital Saturday condemned President Joe Biden’s order freeing up $3.5 billion in Afghan assets held in the US for families of America's 9/11 victims—saying the money belongs to Afghans. Protesters who gathered outside Kabul's grand Eid Gah mosque asked America for...

Pentagon Adjusts Account of Kabul Airport Attack

Investigation concludes that a single bomber was responsible

(Newser) - The mass killing at the Kabul airport last August, as US forces were withdrawing from Afghanistan, was carried out by a single attacker, a Pentagon investigation has found. At least 170 Afghans and 13 American troops were killed in the blast . The Pentagon report says it was caused by one...

As Kabul Fell, a Last-Minute Scramble to Evacuate: Report

Critics question whether better planning from the Biden administration could have saved lives

(Newser) - The Biden administration was working out crucial details of the civilian evacuation from Kabul even as the Taliban descended on the Afghan city, according to a document obtained by Axios . The National Security Council's summary notes from the Aug. 14 meeting of the Deputies Small Group—chaired by Homeland...

Veteran Gets Unexpected Gift From Long-Dead Friend

Edmonton Oilers T-shirt belonged to his best friend and fellow medic, killed in Afghanistan in 2008

(Newser) - A Canadian veteran whose best friend and fellow service member was killed 13 years ago serving in Afghanistan got a surprise Christmas gift this year that drew out a cascade of feelings: his pal's Edmonton Oilers hockey T-shirt. The CBC reports on the emotional story of the friendship between...

Kabul Has Deadliest Attack Since US Left

Mosque bombed during Taliban service, reportedly killing at least 5 civilians

(Newser) - At least five civilians were killed in a bomb blast at the entrance to a Kabul mosque Sunday, a Taliban official said, describing the deadliest attack in the Afghan capital since US forces left at the end of August. There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but suspicion fell on...

Milley: 4 Administrations Made Afghanistan Mistakes

Effect was cumulative, general tells lawmakers

(Newser) - It wasn't any one recent mistake that cost the US the war in Afghanistan, Gen. Mark Milley told lawmakers on Wednesday. "It wasn't lost in the last 20 days or even 20 months," the chairman of the Joint Chiefs said. "There's a cumulative effect...

Generals Contradict Biden on Afghanistan Exit
Generals Contradict
Biden on Afghanistan Exit
THE RUNDOWN

Generals Contradict Biden on Afghanistan Exit

They say they wanted to keep force of 2.5K in the country to prevent collapse

(Newser) - In an ABC interview last month, President Biden defended the chaotic US exit from Afghanistan, denying that advisers had wanted him to keep 2,500 troops in the country. He was contradicted by top military officials during a heated six-hour Senate Armed Services Committee hearing Tuesday, the Hill reports. Gen....

CIA Warned About Civilians Seconds Before Drone Hit

Word came too late to stop the missile that killed 10 people

(Newser) - A Hellfire missile was on its way to its target, a white Corolla in Kabul, when the CIA realized there were civilians in the area, maybe even children in the vehicle. The agency issued an urgent warning to the US military seconds before the missile struck, killing 10 civilians, seven...

Blinken Answers for Afghanistan Exit
Blinken: Trump
Left No Good Options

Blinken: Trump Left No Good Options

'We inherited a deadline. We did not inherit a plan' for Afghanistan, he tells panel

(Newser) - Repeatedly criticized by Republican lawmakers, Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday defending the US handling of the end of the war in Afghanistan. Blinken, in turn, put blame on former President Trump's administration, Politico reports. "We inherited a deadline," Blinken told the House Foreign Affairs Committee....

Evidence Raises Questions About US Drone Strike

Driver could have been putting canisters of water, not explosives, in his vehicle

(Newser) - Video footage and interviews in Kabul have raised questions about the Pentagon's account of the final, fatal US drone attack of the Afghanistan war. The drone struck a vehicle in a residential neighborhood on Aug. 29 that the military said carried explosives and was "an imminent ISIS-K threat"...

Trump Is Calling Families of Troops Killed in Kabul

'He was awesome,' says father of one Marine

(Newser) - Some of the families of the 13 American service members killed in a blast at Kabul's airport last month have refused to speak to President Biden—but they have welcomed calls from former President Trump. Trump has reached out to several families over the last week and some of...

US General: 'Good Probability' of Afghan Civil War

Chairman of joint chiefs of staff Milley says that could help terror groups rise

(Newser) - When the Taliban took control of Afghanistan last month, they didn't take all of the country. One holdout region—the mountainous Panjshir Valley—continued to fight. On Monday, however, the Taliban finally claimed control of that province, too, reports the Washington Post . A Taliban spokesman said the region is...

Crews Describe 'Apocalyptic' Scenes in Afghan Departure

'It looked like one of those zombie movies where all the airplanes had been destroyed'

(Newser) - It looked like a zombie apocalypse. For the US military pilots and aircrew about to make their final takeoffs out of Afghanistan, the sky was lit up with fireworks and sporadic gunfire and the airfield littered with battered shells of airplanes and destroyed equipment. Stray dogs raced around the tarmac....

Pope Inadvertently Uses Putin's Words to Chide West

He was talking about Afghanistan

(Newser) - Pope Francis has criticized the West's two-decade-long involvement in Afghanistan as an outsider's attempt to impose democracy—although he did it by citing Russia's Vladimir Putin while thinking he was quoting Germany's Angela Merkel. Asked during a radio interview aired Wednesday about the new political map...

Biden: 'I Was Not Going to Extend a Forever Exit'

He calls airlift an 'extraordinary success'

(Newser) - Addressing the nation, a defensive President Biden on Tuesday called the US military airlift to extract more than 120,000 Afghans, Americans, and other allies to end a 20-year war an "extraordinary success," though more than 100 Americans and thousands of Afghans looking to leave remain in the...

In the Afghan Aftermath, a Big 'What If' Is Raised

Peggy Noonan calls failure to get bin Laden at Tora Bora a 'richly consequential screw-up'

(Newser) - Among the post-mortems being written about the Afghanistan war is one from Peggy Noonan at the Wall Street Journal , who laments how the war could have ended successfully soon after it began. In December 2001, US and Afghan forces had Osama bin Laden pinned down in the mountainous Tora Bora...

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