US forces detained Taliban commander Latif Mehsud, the US State Department said Friday, an announcement that has reportedly infuriated Afghan president Hamid Karzai, who hoped to use Mehsud as interlocutor for peace talks. During a military operation in the Logar province in eastern Afghanistan, US troops seized Mehsud, identified as a senior commander in the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, a group that... 

Top Afghan officials have been on the CIA’s payroll for over a decade, receiving tens of millions of US dollars in cash. Afghan President Hamid Karzai admitted to receiving the clandestine financial support, but dismissed the sum as a “small amount.” A New York Times report has revealed that unparalleled corruption in the Afghan government has been encouraged by the US Central Intelligence Agency.... 

US President Barack Obama is expected to announce in his upcoming State of the Union Address that 34,000 US troops will be withdrawn from Afghanistan within a year, according to a White House official. Obama plans to deliver his State of the Union Address at 9:00 p.m. Eastern time (0400 GMT) on Tuesday, an administration official said, adding that the troop pullout announcement falls in line with... 

A US soldier has killed at least 17 civilians after opening fire on them near a US military base in Kandahar. There are nine children among the victims, Afghan authorities say. Afghan President Hamid Karzai qualified the incident as an “assassination” and demanded an explanation from Washington, reports the Associated Press. “This is an assassination, an intentional killing of innocent civilians... 

President of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai The U.S. said Iran shouldn’t interfere with Afghanistan’s internal affairs following a report that an Iranian official gave an aide of President Hamid Karzai a bag filled with packets of euro bills. “We understand that Iran and Afghanistan are neighbors and will have a relationship,” Philip J. Crowley, a State Department spokesman, said in an e-mailed...