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... 

The US extends its embassy closures through August 10, State Department has announced. The Al-Qaeda threat that forced US and European embassies in the Middle East and North Africa to shut down is the most serious in years according to a US lawmaker. Although some of the US diplomatic posts are scheduled to reopen on Monday, including those in Kabul, Baghdad and Algiers, most of 22 US embassies that... 

Australia’s Prime Minister Julia Gillard meets members of the Australian Army 1st Mentoring Task Force during her visit to Multinational Base Tarin Kowt in southern Afghanistan October 2, 2010. The Australian armed forces are “illegally” holding several Afghan nationals at a secret prison in the troubled southern Oruzgan Province. Afghan officials say the prison is located at the... 

British military vehicles are parked in a compound in Camp Bastion, Afghanistan. An independent study has found that the UK military’s presence in Afghanistan’s Helmand province, where most British troops are based, has cost the country more than 37 billion pounds so far, local media reported. The author of the damning study entitled “Investment in Blood” said failing, bloody campaign... 

Harrowing footage of a US cargo plane in Afghanistan plummeting to the ground immediately after takeoff and erupting in a massive ball of flames has emerged online. All seven passengers onboard were killed. Video apparently shot from a vehicle dashcam shows the National Airlines Boeing 747 taking off from the Bagram Airfield military base, just north of the Afghanistan capital of Kabul, on Monday. The... 

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... 

When a huge airship emerged over the beaches of New Jersey, it could be mistaken for filming of a historical movie about the events of 1930s. However, this was in fact the first flight of the new giant military airship LEMV. The era of giant airships is making a slow comeback. That day airship Endurance Multi-Intelligence Vehicle (LEMV) created by Hybrid Air Vehicles and Northrop Grumman completed... 

Afghan citizens Taliban radicals have reportedly beheaded 17 civilians, including 2 women, in Southern Afghanistan. Local authorities say the dead were executed for attending a party where unrelated men and women were present. ­The attack happened during a celebration near the Musa Qala district, about 75km north of the capital of Helmand province, Lashkar Gah, said district governor Nimatullah. The... 

Firefighters try to extinguish a burning NATO supply oil tanker following an attack by gunmen on the outskirts of Quetta, June 19, 2011. A bomb explosion has destroyed 22 US-led NATO trucks carrying supplies for US-led forces in Afghanistan’s Samangan Province, an Afghan official says. The incident took place on Wednesday after a magnetic bomb placed in a parking lot exploded, setting the supply... 

Firefighters extinguish burning NATO supply oil tankers and goods trucks at a terminal following an overnight attack by gunmen in Quetta on December 9, 2011. Taliban militants have attacked 12 NATO tankers carrying fuel for US-led forces in eastern Afghanistan, Press TV reports. Afghan officials said that one driver was killed and four security guards were injured late on Sunday when the militants... 

Only days after US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta admitted that American troops are engaged in a war in rural northwest Pakistan, the Pentagon’s top-dog says that the United States is losing patience with their once amiable ally. Secretary Panetta tells reporters and military leaders from Kabul, Afghanistan on Thursday that the United States’ relationship with Pakistan is being put to the test... 

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... 

Afghan demonstrators burn a US flag during a protest against Koran desecration in Helmand province on February 23, 2012. Germany and France have withdrawn their staff from Afghan ministries after two US forces in Kabul were shot dead, as tensions over the desecration of the holy Quran by US-led forces intensify. “The Risk Management Office on Sunday morning ordered its German and international... 

At least seven people have been killed as protesters, outraged by a Koran-burning incident at a NATO base, stormed a US consulate in western Afghanistan. Meanwhile, in the eastern province of Khost protesters have set fire to 20 NATO trucks. The four days of violent anti-American protests have already left 13 dead and dozens injured. Seven people were killed and some 50 wounded on Friday during a...