Kandahar

The bloody mayhem allegedly committed by a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan Sunday couldn't have come at a worse time. The killings, which left up to 16 Afghan civilians dead, are likely to inflame an already tense situation fueled by growing Afghan resentment over the presence of U.S. and NATO troops in their country. Recent weeks have seen an upsurge in anti-American protests erupting into violence againstU.S. military and diplomatic personnel. American officials need to find out the circumstances of the latest killings as quickly as possible and make the results public.

An Army officer from Eldersburg was among five soldiers killed in a helicopter crash earlier this week in Afghanistan, the Defense Department said late Saturday. Capt. Sara M. Knutson, 27, died Monday in Kandahar, the Pentagon said in a release. Knutson was assigned to Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 3rd Combat Aviation Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division, Hunter Army Airfield, Ga. Knutson, a 2003 graduate of Liberty High School and a 2007 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, is the first Marylander killed in Afghanistan this year.

Qayum Karzai, a Baltimore restaurateur and brother of Afghanistan's new prime minister, will introduce this week's offering at Cinema Sundays at the Charles and lead a post-show discussion. Kandahar, by Iranian director Mohsen Makhmalbaf, is a semi-autobiographical film based on the real experiences of the actress playing the lead character. In the film, a Canadian reporter named Nafas journeys back to her homeland to try to rescue her sister, who had been accidentally left behind by the family and is contemplating suicide.

A soldier from Frederick has died in Afghanistan, defense officials said Tuesday. Sgt. David V. Williams, 24, of Frederick died Saturday in Kandahar, officials said. The cause of death is under investigation. Williams was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 1st Infantry Regiment, 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division out of Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash. He entered the Army in August 2008 and was stationed at Camp Red Cloud, South Korea. He arrived at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in February 2011 and deployed to Afghanistan with his brigade in April 2012.

The 1937 French thriller Pepe Le Moko, which was little seen in the United States because Hollywood swiftly remade it as Algiers, features Jean Gabin in his robust glory as a master thief with a telltale heart. He lords it over the Casbah - the perilous demimonde of Algiers - while yearning, fatally, for a knockout Parisienne (Mireille Balin) and the City of Light itself. The movie is director Julien Duvivier's masterpiece, blending electric documentary images with bravura sequences in a style akin to operatic verismo.

KABUL, Afghanistan -- The provincial head of the Afghan Ministry of Women's Affairs in Kandahar was fatally shot in front of her house yesterday as she was leaving for work, officials said. Safia Ama Jan, who was about 65, is the first female official killed by Taliban-led insurgents since the fall of the regime in late 2001. Gunmen riding motorcycles shot her four times, including once in the head, said Mohammad Nader, the head nurse at Kandahar's main hospital. "The enemies of Afghanistan did this, the ones who do not want peace in Afghanistan," said Zemeri Bashary, an Interior Ministry spokesman.

KABUL, Afghanistan --President Hamid Karzai made a surprise visit yesterday to Kandahar, his hometown in the south, to meet with civilians wounded Sunday in a U.S. bombing nearby. Thousands of villagers have fled their homes and sought refuge in Kandahar because of the airstrikes and some of the most intense fighting since the U.S.-led invasion in 2001. The president's visit was fleeting, and security was heavy. Karzai narrowly survived an assassination attempt there in 2002. Speaking to a gathering of Pashtun tribal elders, he vowed to bring security to the region.

SOUTH OF DURANI, Afghanistan - Afghanistan opened a new highway between Kandahar and Kabul yesterday, one of the first significant signs of progress in the enormous task of rebuilding the country. On smooth new asphalt, the 300-mile trip between the cities takes five hours. It took as much as 30 hours on the old road, which had been ground nearly to dust by Soviet military vehicles and tanks during the 1979-1989 Soviet-Afghan war. But the new road is still dangerous because of the threat from bandits and the resurgent Taliban militia.

KABUL, Afghanistan - At least 16 people, including women and children, were killed when their bus exploded on a bridge outside the southern city of Kandahar, in an attack that the local police attributed to the Taliban or other rebel forces. The explosion, probably from an anti-tank mine, gouged a large crater in the road and hurled the bus and bodies around an area of 30 yards. The driver and a 12-year-old boy survived, according to local reporters. Another man died in the hospital, they said.

KABUL, Afghanistan - Two U.S. servicemen were killed in an ambush in lawless southwest Afghanistan yesterday, as a rise in violence continued to sweep the country and put the lives of U.S. and other outside military forces at risk. A U.S. Special Operations soldier and a U.S. airman were killed when their four-vehicle reconnaissance patrol was ambushed near the town of Gereshk, about 60 miles west of the city of Kandahar. Kandahar was the last stronghold of the Taliban regime, which a U.S.-led coalition ousted in late 2001.

Maryland National Guard Sgt. Darren Lebowitz is leaving soon for Afghanistan as many U.S. troops return home. Lebowitz, who has served three tours in Iraq, volunteered for the mission. "I'm a glutton for punishment," he said as he trained Tuesday at this National Guard installation in Central Pennsylvania. As the United States and its coalition partners draw forces out of Afghanistan, more than 250 Maryland guardsmen are heading in. Members of three military police units are preparing for deployments to Kandahar and Bagram, where they will work with Afghan forces, provide security and take on any other assignments that might arise.

The American soldier accused of massacring 17 people in a solo rampage on a remote southern Afghanistan village faces multiple charges of murder and attempted murder. Whisked out of the country by the Army, he is now being held at Fort Leavenworth, Kan. With the Afghan government clamoring for justice, nothing less seems appropriate, pending the thorough Army investigation into the horrible episode in which nine of the fatalities are said to have been children and others women. At least six other villagers were wounded.

The bloody mayhem allegedly committed by a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan Sunday couldn't have come at a worse time. The killings, which left up to 16 Afghan civilians dead, are likely to inflame an already tense situation fueled by growing Afghan resentment over the presence of U.S. and NATO troops in their country. Recent weeks have seen an upsurge in anti-American protests erupting into violence againstU.S. military and diplomatic personnel. American officials need to find out the circumstances of the latest killings as quickly as possible and make the results public.

How is it really going in Afghanistan? In his recent testimony before Congress, Gen. David Petraeus reported substantial if fragile progress and conveyed a can-do attitude reflecting confidence about our prospects. Yet press reports and other organizations and individuals on the ground seem to grow more dispirited by the month. Are they looking at the same war? They are. But they apply very different standards, and so they reach very different conclusions. Soldiers are trained and equipped to fight.

The Obama administration is set to release its long-awaited December strategic review of the war in Afghanistan Thursday, and it's a safe bet there'll be relatively few surprises among its findings. The president's recent secret overnight visit to the troops there signaled he already believes the counterinsurgency strategy of NATO commander General David H. Petraeus is working to break the momentum of the Taliban and create the conditions for gradually turning responsibility for the combat mission over to Afghan security forces.

- The current offensive in Marjah is a critical stepping stone for what is likely the most important fight of the Afghan surge in the coming months: securing Kandahar, the spiritual home of the Taliban and the most important city in southern Afghanistan, according to defense officials and analysts. The military is using the Marjah offensive to destroy an important Taliban haven, but also to test a strategy that emphasizes strong partnership with Afghan security forces and security for Afghan civilians.

KABUL, AFGHANISTAN -- Insurgents yesterday blasted a U.N. convoy with a roadside bomb in the volatile southern city of Kandahar, killing five support workers and stirring fears that violence will further erode struggling aid efforts across Afghanistan. It was the deadliest attack aimed at U.N. staff in the country since the fall of the Taliban in late 2001, world body officials said. Meanwhile, militants for the third straight day targeted Afghan security forces, with dozens of Taliban fighters staging a series of coordinated strikes on police posts less than 50 miles from the Afghan capital.

KABUL, Afghanistan - At least 17 people were killed and dozens wounded in a double bomb blast in the southern town of Kandahar yesterday, shattering the optimism of the country just a day after it adopted a new constitution. At least eight children were among the dead, and 58 people were wounded, said a statement from the office of President Hamid Karzai. The first bomb, in a gas cylinder, exploded but did not injure anyone. The second was far bigger and went off 10 to 15 minutes later in the same place, killing and wounding many people who had gathered at the site of the first blast, said Mohammad Nabi Majrooh, head of the police criminal investigation department in Kandahar.

KABUL, Afghanistan - Explosions echoed through vineyards and pomegranate groves yesterday as Afghan and NATO forces backed by helicopter gunships recaptured at least four villages in southern Afghanistan that had been seized by the Taliban, Afghan authorities said. At least three dozen insurgents, including a commander, and two Afghan soldiers were killed in the Arghandab district northwest of Kandahar, Afghanistan's Defense Ministry said. By day's end, the insurgents were still in control of a half-dozen villages.

KABUL, Afghanistan - Thousands of frightened villagers fled a district in southern Afghanistan that was overrun by Taliban fighters, as NATO and Afghan forces flew in hundreds of reinforcements yesterday to confront the insurgents. About 700 Afghan troops were airlifted to the main coalition base outside Kandahar after Taliban fighters moved into nearly a dozen villages in the strategic Arghandab district, a fertile swath of land 10 miles northwest of Kandahar. Canadian troops, who have the primary responsibility for securing Kandahar and its environs, were also repositioning themselves in response to the developments, said NATO spokesman Mark Laity.