At least 25 people have been killed and dozens injured in four suspected suicide bombings in the Afghan city of Kandahar, police say. The first blast was heard at about 1530 GMT and was followed by three other attacks across the city.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad asserted that the Sept 11 attacks on US World Trade Centre and Pentagon a ‘big lie’ which was used by the US as an excuse for the war on terror. Ahmadinejad, while addressing the Intelligence Ministry staff, said “September 11 was a big lie and a pretext for the war on terror and a prelude to invading Afghanistan,” calling the attacks a “complicated intelligence scenario and act.” Ahmadinejad also questioned US claims that the death toll reached 3,000 saying that the Americans never published the names of those who died. Back in 2007, New York officials have rejected the Iran leader’s request to visit the World Trade Center during his NY visit for a UN meeting.
US Special Representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke has said that misconceptions created on Kerry-Lugar bill have been removed; where as now the relations with Pakistani government are better. During a press briefing in Washington, he said that Pak-Afghan coordination is continuing in order to maintain peace in the region
WASHINGTON: The United States is looking forward to a stable relationship between India and Pakistan, especially as they resume peace talks next week, Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia Robert Blake said.
THE HAGUE: The Dutch government collapsed Saturday, the prime minister said, after members of the coalition government disagreed on a NATO request to extend the Netherlands’ military mission in Afghanistan. “Later today, I will offer to her majesty the Queen the resignations of the ministers and deputy ministers of the (Labour Party) PvdA,” premier Jan Peter Balkenende told journalists in the early hours. He made the announcement after the cabinet held more than 16 hours of talks in The Hague to try to settle the dispute between the PvdA and Balkenende’s Christian Democratic Appeal, the senior partner in the governing coalition.
US President Barack Obama will convene a meeting of his Afghan war cabinet today to assess the first major offensive of his troop surge strategy against the Taliban. The meeting in the secure White House Situation Room also comes after the reported capture by US and Pakistan spies of the Taliban’s top military commander, in what was apparently a huge blow to the Afghan insurgency
KABUL: NATO says three US service members have been killed in southern Afghanistan, but the international coalition says they did not die in connection with a major offensive under way in the Taliban stronghold of Marjah in Helmand province. NATO said the Americans died following a bombing, but it provided no other details. Afghan National Army Maj.
KABUL : A total of 160 bodies have been recovered from an area hit by avalanches in a treacherous mountain pass in northern Afghanistan, a provincial governor said on Wednesday.
BRUSSELS: NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the alliance will never abandon Afghanistan into hands of Taliban. Nato troops to continue their operations until Afghan security forces gain ability to defend their country, he said in an interview
WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has unfurled a long-term, non-military strategy to stabilize Afghanistan and Pakistan. Clinton said that the new strategy called for sending more civilian experts to the region, besides boosting Pakistan’s capabilities to fight a growing Islamist insurgency and to enhance the US partnership with Islamabad partly through supporting political and economic reforms. She noted that the new strategy aimed at improving governance in Afghanistan and reconciliation with the militants, and added that it would also help in stabilizing Af-Pak.