Kandahar

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Taliban Just Banned Afghanistan's Biggest Cash Crop

After decades of financing the leaders, opium, other drugs get the boot

(Newser) - The Taliban was in the restricting mood Sunday, banning opium poppy—which accounts for 80% of the world's supply of opium—along with wine, heroin, and other drugs. The Taliban has had an interesting relationship with opium, having repeatedly tried to ban the narcotic before using the crop to...

Taliban Take Afghanistan's 2nd- and 3rd-Largest Cities
Kandahar Falls 
to Taliban
Aug 13, 2021 1:26 AM CDT

Kandahar Falls to Taliban

Herat, the country's 3rd-largest city, does also

(Newser) - The Taliban captured two major Afghan cities, the country's second- and third-largest after Kabul, and a strategic provincial capital on Thursday, further squeezing the embattled government just weeks before the end of the American military mission in Afghanistan. The seizure of Kandahar and Herat marks the biggest prizes yet...

50 Killed in Afghanistan Airport Attack

Kandahar battle lasted more than a day

(Newser) - Afghanistan says its forces have repelled a Taliban attack on the Kandahar airport that lasted more than 24 hours and killed 50 people, mainly civilians. The Defense Ministry said Thursday that the dead included 38 civilians, 10 Afghan soldiers, and two police officers. It said the 11 "terrorists" who...

On 9/10, Clinton Said He Could Have Killed bin Laden

He decided against strike that would have killed civilians

(Newser) - On the day before the 9/11 attacks, Bill Clinton spoke openly about having passed up a chance to kill Osama bin Laden, according to a tape unearthed by Sky News Australia . "I'm just saying, you know, if I were Osama bin Laden—he's a very smart guy,...

Karzai Cousin Killed: Bomber Shook His Hand, Detonated

Ashmat Khlil Karzai was also politician in his own right

(Newser) - Three years after Afghan President Hamid Karzai's half-brother was assassinated—and a weeping Karzai climbed into his grave —a suicide bomber has killed Karzai's cousin, an official says. According to a rep for Kandahar province's governor, the attacker shook hands with Ashmat Khlil Karzai near the...

Taliban Trick Frees Jailed Afghan Fighters

Prisoner release form was easy to alter

(Newser) - Getting out of prison was even easier than 1-2-3 for a group of Taliban fighters in Kandahar's heavily guarded Sarposa prison, embarrassed security officials say. The numbers 1 and 2 are very similar in the Pashto language, and the prisoners escaped after an official prisoner release form was altered...

Taliban Attack Karzai Palace
 Taliban Attacks Karzai Palace  
Jun 25, 2013 1:13 AM CDT

Taliban Attacks Karzai Palace

All attackers killed in raid on most secure part of Kabul

(Newser) - Suicide attackers set up a car bomb and battled security forces outside Afghanistan's presidential palace early this morning after infiltrating one of the most secure areas of the capital. All the attackers were killed and one palace security guard was wounded, officials say. The palace is in a large...

US Pays $50K Per Death in Afghan Rampage

US also pays $11K per wounded person, but US officials have no comment

(Newser) - The United States has paid almost $50,000 in compensation for each Afghan killed in the shooting spree attributed to a US soldier in southern Afghanistan, an Afghan official and a community elder said today. The families of the dead received the money yesterday at the governor's office, said...

Accused Soldier Flown Out of Afghanistan

Massacre suspect moved to 'appropriate detention facilities' in Kuwait

(Newser) - The American soldier accused of massacring 16 Afghan civilians in a pre-dawn shooting spree has been flown to Kuwait, angering Afghans who want him to stand trial in their country. He was whisked out of Afghanistan because of "our own policies and regulations, and for his own safety and...

'They Let Americans Kill Us'
 'They Let Americans Kill Us' 
Mar 13, 2012 2:27 PM CDT

'They Let Americans Kill Us'

Tribal elder reacts to death of his family

(Newser) - Abdul Samad used to believe in the campaign against the Taliban. When he moved his family back to the village of Panjwai, he settled in a house close to an American military base, believing that there, he would be safe from militants. But all that changed Sunday, when he returned...

In Afghan Killings, a Nagging 'What If'

Afghan base learned solider had left, but search party was too late

(Newser) - As more details emerge in Sunday's slaughter of 16 Afghan civilians, the Wall Street Journal reports on an unfortunate "what if." It turns out that the small base where the accused Army staff sergeant was stationed was aware he left around 3am, thanks to an Afghan soldier...

Afghan Soldier Killed at Service for Rampage Victims

Taliban, meanwhile, threatens to behead US soldiers

(Newser) - Militants opened fire on a prayer service for the 16 people killed in a US soldier's shooting rampage this weekend, targeting a visiting government delegation that included two of Hamid Karzai's brothers, along with senior defense, intelligence, and interior ministry officials. The militants fired from a distance, killing...

Kandahar Mayor Assassinated
 Kandahar Mayor Assassinated 
Jul 27, 2011 8:49 AM CDT

Kandahar Mayor Assassinated

Taliban claims responsibility, says it was over demolition dispute

(Newser) - A suicide bomber hiding explosives in his turban assassinated the mayor of Kandahar today, just two weeks after President Hamid Karzai's powerful half brother was slain in the southern province that is critical to the US-led war effort. Mayor Ghulam Haider Hamidi, 65, was the third powerbroker from southern...

Afghan Blast Kills 7 US Troops
 Afghan Blast Kills 7 US Troops 
May 26, 2011 10:39 PM CDT

Afghan Blast Kills 7 US Troops

Kandahar roadside bomb deadliest since 2009

(Newser) - Nine NATO service members were killed Thursday in Afghanistan, including seven US troops and another NATO service member killed when a powerful bomb exploded in a field where they were patrolling on foot, officials said. Two Afghan policemen also died and two others were wounded in the explosion in the...

US Only Got bin Laden Because It's in Afghanistan

This proves we can't count on Pakistan, Bruce Riedel points out

(Newser) - Happy that Osama bin Laden is dead? Well, remember that the raid that killed him “was possible only because America and NATO are engaged in Afghanistan,” writes Bruce Riedel of the Daily Beast . “Simply put, we can’t put pressure on al-Qaeda without Afghanistan forward operating bases,...

Afghan Prison Break Looks Like Inside Job: Karzai

So far, just 65 convicts have been recaptured, and two killed

(Newser) - Hundreds of prisoners are still at large the day after a massive jailbreak in Afghanistan , but officials say Afghan and international forces have caught 65 of them and killed two. The justice minister acknowledged in a letter to President Hamid Karzai that the Taliban, which has claimed to have orchestrated...

Taliban Bust Hundreds Out of Afghan Prison

Taliban spokesman says 100 are commanders

(Newser) - Hundreds of prisoners, most of them Taliban fighters, escaped from an Afghanistan prison last night, and so far only 13 have been recaptured. Taliban militants staged the escape by digging a 1,050-foot underground tunnel into Kandahar's main prison and leading about 475 prisoners out, the AP reports. Al...

Deadly Protests Continue Against Koran Burning

At least 8 people are killed in Kandahar

(Newser) - Pastor Terry Jones' Koran-burning stunt continues to reverberate across the world. At least eight people were killed in a riot in Kandahar today while protesting Jones' actions last month , reports al-Jazeera and CNN . The unrest follows the death of a dozen people yesterday, including seven UN workers, during a riot...

US Blows Up Booby-Trapped Afghan Homes

Taliban left hundreds of surprises in Kandahar

(Newser) - US forces are systematically destroying hundreds or, by some estimates, even thousands of homes in newly-captured parts of Kandahar, after finding that they’d been booby-trapped by the Taliban, the New York Times reports. NATO has been attempting to compensate the homeowners, but the effort still isn’t going over...

Taliban Retreats in Kandahar: NATO

Coalition thinks they've made big progress

(Newser) - NATO and Afghan forces have been wiping the floor with the Taliban in Kandahar in recent weeks, using new high-precision mobile rockets to rout insurgents from their long-held strongholds, NATO commanders, Afghan officials and local residents tell the New York Times . Western officials believe the Taliban has been dealt a...

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