Taliban

WASHINGTON -As a presidential candidate, Barack Obama urged that U.S. troops be sent immediately to Afghanistan because the situation was deteriorating so quickly. "Now is the time to do it," he said in July. Waiting for the next administration, he added, "would be a mistake. The situation is urgent." No new troops were sent. And now, as President Obama prepares to deploy up to 30,000 more American soldiers, Afghanistan and the U.S.-led intervention there have slid into deeper trouble.

KABUL, Afghanistan -- A huge explosion yesterday in a hunting supplies store here killed at least six people and wounded nine, and a few hours later a suicide bomber detonated explosives strapped to his chest in a bazaar in the eastern province of Khost, killing five people and wounding 38, officials said. The early-morning explosion in Kabul shook the city and turned an outdoor market near the store into a mass of debris. Afghan officials said that the explosion appeared to have been an accident and that it had occurred in a place where gunpowder and dynamite were stored.

KABUL, Afghanistan -- A man identifying himself as a Taliban spokesman said the insurgents had killed two German and five Afghan captives yesterday, adding that they also intended to kill 23 South Korean captives if their demand for the release of an equal number of Taliban prisoners was not met within 24 hours. The claim that seven hostages were dead could not be verified, and Afghanistan's Foreign Ministry denied the report, insisting that one of the German hostages had died of a heart attack and that the other was still alive.

KABUL, Afghanistan -- President Hamid Karzai said for the first time yesterday that he had held meetings with members of the Taliban as part of a reconciliation effort, but he ruled out talks with the Taliban leader, Mullah Muhammad Omar, or foreign militants who are fighting along with the Taliban. He made the comments as the Taliban claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing in the capital that killed six people, and as NATO battled Taliban forces for control of an important town in southern Afghanistan.

SANGIN, Afghanistan -- The British army compound in a drug lord's former villa, with its sandbagged windows and lookout posts and shrapnel-scarred walls, is a reminder that until just a few weeks ago, Sangin was among the most dangerous towns in Afghanistan's most dangerous province, Helmand. Since their arrival last spring in this lawless region of mountains and desert, British troops have lost 64 men in almost daily combat against a Taliban force second to none in size and ferocity in the country.

WASHINGTON -- Afghanistan is suffering its most violent year since the 2001 U.S.-led intervention, according to an internal United Nations report that sharply contrasts with recent upbeat appraisals by President Bush and his Afghan counterpart, Hamid Karzai. "The security situation in Afghanistan is assessed by most analysts as having deteriorated at a constant rate through 2007," said the report compiled by the Kabul office of the U.N. Department of Safety and Security. There were 525 security incidents - attacks by the Taliban and other violent groups, bombings, terrorism of other kinds and abductions - every month during the first half of this year, up from an average of 425 incidents per month in 2006.

KABUL, Afghanistan -- A suicide bomber driving a taxi set off his explosives near a convoy of American civilian contractors and accompanying soldiers yesterday morning, killing himself and four bystanders, the Kabul police said. One of his intended targets was wounded. Within hours, U.S. soldiers fired into a crowd of Afghans near the scene of the blast, accidentally killing one man and wounding another, according to a U.S. military spokesman, Lt. Col. David A. Accetta. "It was an unfortunate incident, and we are investigating the cause of the accidental discharge of a weapon," he said.

KABUL, Afghanistan -- President Hamid Karzai, expressing horror at a suicide bombing here in the Afghan capital that killed at least 30 people and wounded dozens more, offered yesterday to meet with Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar to stop the carnage. Karzai spoke at an emotional news conference hours after an early-morning blast tore through a bus carrying soldiers to their posts. The explosion was so powerful that it ripped the roof and sides from the bus, scattering body parts and debris along a street in the city center.

KABUL, Afghanistan -- A Pakistani Taliban leader who is waging a government-backed campaign to evict Central Asian militants from Pakistan's tribal regions said yesterday that he would give Osama bin Laden sanctuary in his area if he sought it. "Bin Laden has never come to this area, but if he comes here and seeks our protection, then according to tribal laws and customs we will protect him," the Taliban commander, Mullah Muhammad Nazir, 32, told journalists...

KABUL, Afghanistan -- U.S. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates arrived in Kabul yesterday for his second visit to the Afghan capital since becoming the Pentagon chief, saying that although he believes progress is being made in the country, he wants to ensure there is no slackening of effort. Gates first visited Afghanistan in January, just weeks into his tenure, after which he expressed guarded optimism, saying the situation on the ground was better than he had expected. Senior Defense Department officials familiar with Gates' thinking said he believes the situation has improved since then, despite a rise in violence in the restive south.

The month's death toll so far: 55 Eight U.S. soldiers died Tuesday in two attacks, both of which involved improvised explosive devices and occurred in a province that is seen as an insurgent stronghold. October is the third month out of the past four that U.S. military deaths in Afghanistan hit a record. Taliban targets U.N., Afghan vote Gunmen attacked a guest house used by United Nations staff in the Afghan capital of Kabul early today, killing at least seven people including three U.N. staff, officials said.

Should the Supreme Court allow state and local gun control laws to be challenged under the Second Amendment? Yes 60% No 37% Not sure 3% (700 votes, results not scientific) Next poll: : Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, has asked President Barack Obama to quickly send tens of thousands more troops to fight al-Qaeda and the Taliban. Should the president do it? Vote at baltimoresun.com/vote

Senior Airman Ashton Goodman of Indianapolis was killed in May when a suicide car bomber detonated beside her convoy north of Kabul. The same attack also killed Lt. Col. Mark E. Stratton II of Houston and 1st Sgt. Blue C. Rowe of Summers, Ark. In June, Pfc. Matthew D. Ogden of Corpus Christi, Texas, was killed along with three other soldiers of the 10th Mountain Division by a roadside bomb in Wardak Province. In July, Lance Cpl. Charles S. Sharp of Adairsville, Ga., was fatally wounded by Taliban in Helmand Province.

WASHINGTON - -The CIA is deploying teams of spies, analysts and paramilitary operatives to Afghanistan, part of a broad intelligence "surge" that will make its station there among the largest in the agency's history, U.S. officials say. When complete, the CIA's presence in the country is expected to rival the size of its huge stations in Iraq and Vietnam at the height of those wars. Precise numbers are classified, but one U.S. official said the agency already has nearly 700 employees in Afghanistan.

The British documentary "Afghan Star" boldly handles a rich, involving subject - the emergence of an "American Idol"-like TV show in post-Taliban Afghanistan. The film's essential fascination and integrity swamp any qualms about its pacing or all-around moviemaking. Most Americans are aware of religious subcultures that ban dancing. The Taliban banned music itself. Playing instruments and singing have become inspirational releases in a land still starving for liberty and beauty. Just as Western rock helped bring down the Iron Curtain, "Afghan Star" suggests that Eastern pop will break up Afghanistan's ethnic and sexual divisions and traditions of patriarchal tyranny.

It's been eight years since Sept. 11, 2001, and we are still at war in Afghanistan and still have not captured Osama bin Laden or Mullah Mohammed Omar. Reconstruction on the site of the World Trade Center has only just begun. We still have not figured out how to handle combatants in the global war on terror in a way that is fully consistent with our values. We are not close to declaring victory, and sometimes it seems that we may never be. But on this anniversary of the terrorist attacks on New York and the Pentagon and in the skies over Pennsylvania, it's important to recall why we are fighting and what is at stake.

August has been the deadliest month for U.S. troops in the eight-year war in Afghanistan, and as the security situation continues to deteriorate amid charges of widespread fraud in last week's national elections there, the outcome of the conflict seems as uncertain as ever. Friday, a roadside bomb that killed a soldier brought to 45 the number of U.S. troops who have died in Afghanistan this month, surpassing the previous record of 44 in July. Presently there are approximately 60,000 U.S. troops in the country, with 29,000 more expected to arrive by the end of the year.

On a recent trip to Kabul for our nonprofit organization, Jobs for Afghans, we made a startling discovery: There is no true Taliban insurgency. Yes, there is a Taliban leadership, many of whom are "foreigners," meaning, non-Afghans. Yes, there are many fighting-age men who fight because they are paid to do so, by the small cadre of Taliban and Al Qaeda commanders who have plenty of opium money. They fork out the excellent wage in these parts of $8 per day for "insurgent work." But a die-hard, dedicated army of fighters who pledge allegiance to the Taliban ideology and cause?

KABUL, Afghanistan - -A powerful truck bomb on Thursday killed at least 25 people, more than half of them children, in an eastern province near Kabul. Authorities speculated that the explosives-laden vehicle was intended for an attack in the capital. Three American soldiers were killed by roadside bombs, the U.S. military said, two in southern Afghanistan and one in the east. The incidents followed a pattern of escalating violence in widely scattered areas of Afghanistan. The truck blast took place in Lowgar province.

Car bomb kills at least 27 in crowded Iraq market BAGHDAD - A car bomb exploded in a crowded outdoor market in the northern city of Kirkuk on Tuesday, killing at least 27 people, police said, a deadly reminder of the challenges facing the Iraqi government even as it celebrated the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from cities. The bombing marred what had otherwise been a festive day as Iraqis commemorated the newly declared National Sovereignty Day. It also came hours after four U.S. soldiers were killed in combat Monday in Baghdad.