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NEWS ABOUT: Kabul

Kabul Embassy Whistleblower Sues Security Firm

Manager says he was forced out after trying to stop embassy guards visiting brothels

(Newser) - A former manager who says he tried to lift the lid on bad behavior by guards at the US Embassy in Kabul is suing security contractor ArmorGroup, CNN reports. James Gordon says he was forced out of his job after asking the company and the State Department to investigate guards'... More »

Suicide Bomb Rocks NATO Base at Kabul Airport

At least two civilians dead; foreign troops may also be victims

(Newser) - A suicide bomber blew up his car outside a NATO military base at Afghanistan's main airport today, killing at least two civilians and wounding six others, Reuters reports. Eyewitnesses saw huge flames rising from the airport, which has endured Taliban rocket attacks and suicide bombs in the past. An Afghan... More »

Kabul Embassy Fires 8 Guards Over Nude Parties

(AP) - The US Embassy in Afghanistan says it has fired eight security guards following allegations of lewd behavior and sexual misconduct at their living quarters. The management team of the private contractor that provides the guards is also "being replaced immediately," officials at the Kabul embassy said today. The... More »

Sex Acts Tied to Promotion at Afghan Embassy: Guard

Private contractor encouraged nude, drunken parties, worker says

(Newser) - One of the guards at the rowdy US embassy in Kabul went public last night, telling ABC News that new recruits had to participate in naked parties and perform sex acts with other men in order to get promoted or be assigned preferable shifts. The guard, one of 12 who... More »

US Embassy Guards in Kabul Living Lurid Lifestyle

(AP) - Guards hired by the State Department to protect diplomats and staff at the US embassy in Afghanistan live and work in a Lord of the Flies environment in which they are subjected to hazing and humiliation by supervisors, a government oversight group says. In a 10-page letter to Hillary Clinton,... More »

Taliban Battle Police in Kabul on Election Eve

(Newser) - Taliban fighters wearing explosive-laced vests stormed a government-run bank in central Kabul today, precipitating an hours-long shootout with Afghan forces 24 hours before the presidential election. A Taliban source said that 20 militants had entered Kabul, a day after a suicide bomb and a rocket attack rocked the capital. Afghan... More »

7 Dead, 91 Hurt in Blast Near Kabul NATO HQ

(AP) - A suicide car bomb exploded early today outside the main gate of NATO's headquarters, killing seven and wounding 91 in the biggest attack in the Afghan capital in six months.  The bomber evaded several rings of Afghan police and detonated his explosives on the doorstep of the international military... More »

Taliban Truck Bomb Kills 13 Kids in Kabul

(AP) - 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... More »

Afghanistan Quarantines Its Lone Pig

(Newser) - Kabul Zoo officials have locked up the only known pig in Afghanistan to allay visitors' fears that it might spread swine flu, Reuters reports. Pork is illegal in Afghanistan for religious reasons; the country’s lone porcine resident is a zoo animal. “For now, the pig is under quarantine,... More »

Karzai Takes Ex-Warlords as Afghan Running Mates

Qasim Fahim held the post until 2004

(Newser) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai tapped a former mujahedeen warlord as one of his two vice-presidential candidates today, the New York Times reports. Muhammad Qasim Fahim was Karzai’s vice president from the beginning of his administration through 2004, and still holds sway with political parties made up of former guerrillas.... More »

US Envoy Visits Pakistan, Afghanistan Amid Violence

(Newser) - Richard Holbrooke, the Obama administration’s special envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan, arrived in the region yesterday as waves of killings were washing over both countries, the BBC reports. While touring Pakistan’s volatile frontier region, a local official was killed by a roadside bomb. At the same time in... More »

Gunmen Kill 19 in Kabul Attacks

(Newser) - Gunmen launched coordinated suicide attacks on three government buildings in Afghanistan’s capital today, killing at least 19 and injuring more than 50, the BBC reports. Attackers armed with AK-47s, grenades, and in some cases explosive vests hit the prison directorate and the justice and education ministries. The Taliban claimed... More »

Power Returns to Kabul, but Bribes Persist

Deal boosts electricity access, business in struggling Afghan capital

(Newser) - For the first time since the fall of the Taliban, the glow of light hangs over Kabul late into the night, GlobalPost reports. An energy deal with Uzbekistan is bringing unprecedented access to electricity to the Afghan capital, where most neighborhoods only had power for about four hours every second... More »

Kidnap Rise Adds to Afghan Woes Awaiting Obama

Obama faces an increasingly challenging scenario as government falters in Kabul

(Newser) - A rash of kidnappings has struck Afghanistan, a symptom of the deteriorating security situation there, writes Masha Hamilton in Salon. Kabul is no longer viewed as a safe haven as the Taliban and criminal gangs seize foreigners and Afghans alike—sometimes for ideological reasons, often just for a ransom payment.... More »

Bush Stops in Afghanistan; Vows Support

Pledges continued US support

(Newser) - Five hours after his final visit to the country that defined his presidency, President Bush landed in Afghanistan this morning for an unsurprising surprise visit on his farewell tour. After a pre-dawn rally with US troops, the president renewed his support of the fledgling democracy in a meeting with President... More »

US Focus in Afghanistan Shifts to Kabul

Some 3,500 troops will guard capital region

(Newser) - January’s US troop deployments in Afghanistan will focus on areas near Kabul, reflecting rising security concerns about the capital, the New York Times reports. The move marks the first time large numbers of troops will be deployed to regions south of the city. The 3,500 to 4,000... More »

Kabul Blast Kills 4 Near US Embassy

Suicide car bombers struck as Westerners gathered for Thanksgiving run

(Newser) - At least four Afghans were killed when a suicide car bomber struck 200 yards outside the American embassy in Kabul this morning, AP reports. The embassy said none of its personnel was injured in the blast, which happened as Americans and other Westerners were entering the embassy compound for a... More »

Freed Reporter Held in Cave Underground

But Canadian journalist says Afghan captors did not harm her

(Newser) - Canadian officials secured the release yesterday of a reporter who was kept in an underground cave in Afghanistan for a month, CNN reports. Melissa Fung said her abductors bound her hands and feet, but that she was never mistreated. Afghan authorities arrested three people in the case and are looking... More »

Taliban Govern Large Areas of Afghanistan

Residents turning to Taliban 'rulers' to settle criminal, civil disputes

(Newser) - The Taliban is regaining significant ground in Afghanistan, running a harsh but effective parallel government that wields more power than the official administration, reports the Observer. Taliban influence has spread as far as the outskirts of Kabul, and is firmly entrenched in large parts of the south and east. More »

Afghanistan's Insurgency Endures

Attacks highlight security decline

(Newser) - The insurgency in Afghanistan is mushrooming, and targeting the refurbished highway that provides a weak connection between the country's ethnic halves, the New York Times reports. A series of deadly attacks in June has exposed the tribulations of the United States' 6-year-old effort to defeat the Taliban. More »

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