Kandahar

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US Preps Plans to Take Out Taliban Poppy Crop

Offensive aims to cut off Afghan insurgency's financial lifeline

(Newser) - American commanders in Afghanistan are preparing a huge assault on the Taliban's opium-growing heartlands this summer, reports the New York Times. Taking out the opium crop is key to NATO strategy, and commanders expect casualties on both sides will be high as the militants stand their ground to defend the...

Unbowed by Attack, Afghan Girls Return to School

School thrives despite horrific assault

(Newser) - Last November in Kandahar, the southern Afghan city in the grip of the Taliban, 15 students and teachers were sprayed with acid on their way to a girls' school. The attack was the culmination of a Taliban-supported campaign to keep women from education, but the girls and their teachers have...

US Strike Kills 40 at Wedding: Afghans

President Karzai angry; military investigating incident

(Newser) - A US air strike killed 40 civilians at a wedding party Monday, the Afghan government said today. The US said it was investigating the incident, but would not verify any attack or death toll, the New York Times reports. A Kandahar province official said US forces were fighting with the...

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.

Afghans Launch Assault on Taliban

Kandahar is next militant target

(Newser) - Afghan and NATO troops launched a huge offensive against the Taliban today, Reuters reports, starting with an air and ground assault on a valley in southern Afghanistan. Bolstered with hundreds of fighters freed in last week’s prison break, the Taliban has taken several villages in Arghandab, and has its...

Taliban Jailbreak Frees 1,200
 Taliban Jailbreak Frees 1,200 
Jun 13, 2008 11:02 PM CDT

Taliban Jailbreak Frees 1,200

Inmates spill into streets after suicide blast at Kandahar prison

(Newser) - Taliban fighters blasted into Kandahar's main prison last night and freed about 1,200 inmates, including 350 Taliban, the New York Times reports. Prisoners, including Taliban leaders, quickly flooded the streets and scattered into nearby villages. “It is very dangerous for security," a Kandahar politician said. "They...

Afghan Cops Blow Up Huge Hashish Stash

260 tons of narcotics destroyed after history's biggest drugs bust

(Newser) - Afghanistan police have made what is believed to be the biggest narcotics bust in history, the Guardian reports. Some 260 tons of hashish—worth $400 million—was found buried in trenches near the Pakistan border. The narcotics haul, which would have made as much as $14 million in profits for...

Ex-Detainee Describes Gitmo Tortures
Ex-Detainee Describes
Gitmo Tortures
May 21, 2008 12:02 PM CDT

Ex-Detainee Describes Gitmo Tortures

He was beaten, hung from ceiling, shocked with electricity

(Newser) - A man arrested in Pakistan and held as an enemy combatant in Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay was hung from the ceiling, beaten, and shocked with jolts of electricity, he testified to Congress yesterday. The German-born Turkish citizen told lawmakers that US interrogators also forced water down his throat. He was...

Canadian Convoy Bombed in Afghanistan

Attack precedes Canada's vote on unpopular operation

(Newser) - A suicide attack on a Canadian convoy in Afghanistan killed a civilian, injured at least one soldier, and set ablaze a nearby home less than half a mile from the Canadian base of operations in Kandahar. The Taliban took credit for the attack, which comes just as Canada is about...

New Afghan Bombing Kills 37
New Afghan Bombing Kills 37
Feb 18, 2008 7:16 AM CST

New Afghan Bombing Kills 37

Target was a NATO convoy

(Newser) - Terrorists targeting a Canadian NATO convoy today in southern Afghanistan killed at least 37 when they detonated a massive car bomb in a crowded marketplace, the Guardian reports. At least 30 more were wounded, including three soldiers. Like yesterday’s bombing, which claimed 100 lives and was the deadliest since...

80 Killed in Afghan Bombing
80 Killed in Afghan Bombing
Feb 17, 2008 5:40 AM CST

80 Killed in Afghan Bombing

Worst Taliban suicide attack since 2001 hits spectators at dog fight

(Newser) - A suicide blast today killed at least 80 in a crowd of spectators watching a dog fight in the Afghan city of Kandahar. Nobody claimed responsibility for the attack, but local authorities believe it was the work of the Taliban, which has a large presence in the area, BBC reports....

Rice Pays Surprise Visit to Kandahar

Bid to reassure Afghan president of NATO commitment

(Newser) - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her British counterpart David Miliband made a surprise visit today to Kandahar, the dangerous city in southern Afghanistan that diplomats rarely visit. Rice and Miliband will meet Hamid Karzai later today to try to reassure the Afghan president that his country remains a...

Afghan Women Protest Yank Kidnapping

Rare gathering of 500 rallies for female aid worker

(Newser) - Some 500 Afghan women, many wearing burqas, assembled in an extremely rare mass protest in Kandahar to protest the kidnapping of American aid worker Cyd Mizell. "Her kidnapping is against our culture and tradition," said the director of the women's organization in Kandahar. Some of the women had...

Afghans Search for Abducted American
Afghans Search for Abducted American
Jan 27, 2008 10:04 AM CST

Afghans Search for Abducted American

Taliban remains silent as police hunt for missing aid worker

(Newser) - Afghan police are searching for an American aid worker and her driver kidnapped yesterday in Kandahar. Police have tightened security in the southern city, AFP reports, blocking traffic and questioning Afghans in the area where Cyd Mizell was seized. Nobody has claimed responsibility; a Taliban spokesman refused to say whether...

Afghan Gunmen Kidnap Female US Aid Worker

Woman, 49, was wearing burqa when stopped near Kandahar

(Newser) - An American woman has been kidnapped in Afghanistan along with her driver, the AP reports. The woman, 49, worked for an aid organization and was wearing a burqa when she was stopped near the southern city of Kandahar. Police are searching for the kidnappers, whom a local governor called “...

Canadian Panel Urges Afghanistan Troop Pullout

Miffed Canadians say allies need to step up

(Newser) - A government-appointed panel has recommended that Canada withdraw from a combat role in Afghanistan next year unless European allies shoulder more of the burden, reports the Financial Times. "Canadian resources, and Canadians' patience, are not limitless," said the panel, which was established to defuse the debate that has...

40 Taliban Die in Afghan Clashes
40 Taliban Die in Afghan Clashes
Dec 2, 2007 8:00 AM CST

40 Taliban Die in Afghan Clashes

Three days of battle latest sign of Taliban surge

(Newser) - Some 40 Taliban insurgents were killed in three days of clashes with Afghani and US-led foreign forces in the mountainous Shah Wali Kot district in southern Kandahar province, reports AP. Forces launched pitched battles against various pockets of Taliban strongholds in the area and called in airstrikes.

250 Taliban Surrounded, Villagers Flee

But Afghan mission loses support of Japanese ships ordered home

(Newser) - Some 250 Taliban fighters are surrounded by coalition troops just 15 miles north of the Taliban’s old power base of Kandahar, the AP reports. Villagers fled as the insurgents took over their homes. “They’re surrounded and in big trouble,” said Kandahar police. But the coalition lost...

Top Taliban Commander Is Killed
Top Taliban Commander
Is Killed
May 13, 2007 2:21 PM CDT

Top Taliban Commander Is Killed

Mullah Dadullah ordered bombings, assassinations, kidnappings, beheadings

(Newser) - The Taliban's top military commander was killed in Southern Afghanistan, and his body  displayed, covered by a pink sheet, in Kandahar today. An amputee whose body was recognizable in part by a missing leg, Mullah Dadullah was killed in a joint operation by Afghan security forces and American and NATO...

Stories 41 - 59 | << Prev