September 15, 2004

KABUL, Afghanistan - U.S.-led forces will launch "decisive operations" to reclaim two southern towns captured in recent days by the Taliban, the military said Tuesday. Scores of Taliban militants chased police out of the two towns near the Pakistani border.

Arizona Army National Guard Sgt. Michael Semeja says he’s just a soldier trying to make a difference and come home safely from Afghanistan.

U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Brian S. Hobbs had always said he was born to be a soldier, and on Thursday the Mesa man died doing what he loved, a family member said Friday.

October 16, 2004

ALIABAD, Afghanistan - The bearded Afghan army officer dropped off bundles of pens and notebooks at the school and asked one boy which he preferred: The Americans or the Taliban?

KABUL, Afghanistan - NATO peacekeepers exchanged fire with protesters who attacked their base Tuesday in the second straight day of violent demonstrations in Afghanistan over the publication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad, Afghan officials said. One demonstrator was killed and dozens wounded.

December 7, 2004

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - A bomb from a suicide attacker tore through a mosque during Wednesday's funeral for a Muslim cleric opposed to the Taliban, killing at least 20 people, and the local governor said an al-Qaida-linked militant was responsible.

KABUL — President Hamid Karzai put a brave face Thursday on President Barack Obama's decision to start pulling out troops in mid-2011, telling The Associated Press in his first public response that it will push Afghans to take control of their own destiny.

KABUL  — It's been a summer of setbacks in Afghanistan — with rising casualties, a divisive election and growing public doubts about the war in the United States and among key allies.

KABUL  -- Thousands of U.S. Marines and hundreds of Afghan troops moved into Taliban-infested villages of southern Afghanistan with armor and helicopters Thursday in the first major operation under President Barack Obama's strategy to stabilize the country.

Forgiveness is a discipline that transcends cultures and bridges many divides when words fail. Without it, the world would look like the chaotic mess that is Afghanistan these days, where an alleged Quran burning by the U.S. military supposedly inspired deadly riots and the murder of U.S. troops.

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama's top commander in Afghanistan has told him that without more troops the United States could lose the war that Obama has described as the nation's foremost military priority.

KABUL, Afghanistan - A suicide car bomber attacked an American military convoy on the road to Kabul's airport on Saturday, killing a U.S. soldier and a four Afghan civilians, officials said.

KABUL, Afghanistan - Coalition forces pressed forward with a major offensive in southern Afghanistan, killing an estimated 45 insurgents in attacks on two Taliban militant camps, military officials said Saturday.

KABUL, Afghanistan - The U.S. military said airstrikes by its attack helicopters hit two vehicles carrying insurgents in eastern Afghanistan. The province's governor said 22 civilians, including a woman and a child, were killed.

WASHINGTON — Rampant government corruption may derail the fight against the Taliban and al-Qaida in Afghanistan even if as many as 80,000 additional U.S. troops are sent to the war, the top military commander there has concluded, according to U.S. officials briefed on his recommendations.

KABUL - Doctors voiced concern over "unusual" burns on Afghan villagers wounded in an already controversial U.S.-Taliban battle, and the country's top human rights groups said Sunday it is investigating the possibility white phosphorus was used.

KABUL, Afghanistan - An Afghan army commander said that U.S. and Afghan troops were fired on first from a village where a government investigative commission says scores of civilians were killed, according to a report released Sunday.

BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan - Afghan tribes are needed as crucial battlefield allies against the Taliban and other extremists in the same way local militias rose up to oppose insurgents in Iraq, the new military overseer of America's two wars said Thursday.