Afghan Capital

KABUL, Afghanistan — President Hamid Karzai suggested Thursday that a speeded-up departure of Western troops is the only way to prevent a recurrence of "painful experiences" such as the sight of American soldiers posing with the body parts of dead insurgents. In a statement issued by the Afghan presidential palace 24 hours after the Los Angeles Times published photos showing U.S. troops with the remains of suicide bombers and mugging for the camera, Karzai called the behavior depicted "inhumane and provocative.

KABUL, Afghanistan — President Hamid Karzai suggested Thursday that a speeded-up departure of Western troops is the only way to prevent a recurrence of "painful experiences" such as the sight of American soldiers posing with the body parts of dead insurgents. In a statement issued by the Afghan presidential palace 24 hours after the Los Angeles Times published photos showing U.S. troops with the remains of suicide bombers and mugging for the camera, Karzai called the behavior depicted "inhumane and provocative.

WASHINGTON - In the final months of her tenure as secretary of State, Hillary Rodham Clinton is fighting a long retreat on a cause close to her heart, and to her legacy - the status of Afghan women. Clinton embraced the cause long before the first U.S. troops landed in the country, and as secretary of State she has brought Afghan women worldwide attention, political power and unbending promises of American support. "We will not abandon you," she pledged. But now, with U.S. officials laying plans to remove most troops in two years, the Afghan government and other institutions appear to be adjusting their positions on women's rights to accommodate conservative factions.

WASHINGTON - In the final months of her tenure as secretary of State, Hillary Rodham Clinton is fighting a long retreat on a cause close to her heart, and to her legacy - the status of Afghan women. Clinton embraced the cause long before the first U.S. troops landed in the country, and as secretary of State she has brought Afghan women worldwide attention, political power and unbending promises of American support. "We will not abandon you," she pledged. But now, with U.S. officials laying plans to remove most troops in two years, the Afghan government and other institutions appear to be adjusting their positions on women's rights to accommodate conservative factions.

With political tensions running high in advance of President Hamid Karzai's expected announcement this week of his new Cabinet, a suicide car bomber struck in the heart of Afghanistan's capital on Tuesday, killing eight people and injuring more than 40 others. Officials said the target may have been former Vice President Ahmed Zia Massoud, whose house was heavily damaged in the attack. Massoud is the brother of Ahmed Shah Massoud, a much-revered leader of the anti-Taliban resistance who was assassinated in 2001, just before the Sept.

KABUL — Taliban militants struck in the heart of the Afghan capital today, launching suicide attacks on key government targets in a clear sign the insurgents plan to escalate their fight as the U.S. and its allies ramp up a campaign to end the war. At least five people, including a child, were killed and nearly 40 wounded, officials said. The Defense Ministry said seven attackers also had been killed. After a series of blasts and more than three hours of subsequent gunfights outside several ministries and inside a shopping mall, President Hamid Karzai said security had been restored to the capital, though search operations continued amid reports that more attackers were hiding in the city.

Tens of thousands of people, some carrying children and hauling belongings in rickety carts, fled the capital Saturday as warring Islamic factions observed a daylong cease-fire. "It is like hell here," said Rahila, who like most Afghans uses only one name. "I can't live here anymore. The leaders are responsible for the tragedy." Departing U.N. officials said the number of fleeing residents slogging through slush and snow might total in the hundreds of thousands.

At least 58 people were killed and 224 wounded in rocket and mortar attacks on the Afghan capital of Kabul on Tuesday, official Kabul Radio said. Some of the fatalities were guests at a wedding party hit by a rocket. The broadcast, monitored in Islamabad, blamed factions opposing President Burhanuddin Rabbani for the attacks. Militias controlled by Prime Minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and northern warlord Gen.

The Soviet Union poured fresh supplies of tanks and artillery into Kabul on Wednesday in a dramatic show of support for the embattled government of President Najibullah. Three days after the Afghan leader launched a new drive to persuade rebel commanders to start peace talks, saying he cannot be defeated militarily, Moscow delivered a huge convoy of trucks, tanks, artillery and command vehicles.

Taliban fighters reinforced defenses around the Afghan capital Monday as their foes consolidated dramatic weekend advances and forged an alliance with northern leader Abdul Rashid Dostum. The fundamentalist Taliban, rulers of most of Afghanistan for the last two weeks, admitted losing towns along a key road north of Kabul but vowed they would roll back forces led by Ahmed Shah Masoud.

In the gray light of each cold dawn, the parents of 10-month-old Shoaib hold their own breath as they listen for the rasp of his, waiting to see whether their coughing, feverish little boy has survived another night. Winter's chill has settled over the Afghan capital, and with it, privation is sharpening, especially among the city's poor. Nighttime temperatures regularly fall into the teens, or even lower. The season's first snow is on the ground, the open sewage ditches are crusted over with ice, and in shantytowns such as the one where Shoaib's family lives, survival turns on a series of cruelly simple calculations.

At least 13 Americans were killed Saturday when a suicide bomber struck an armored military bus in Kabul, in the single deadliest attack on U.S. citizens in the Afghan capital since the war began a decade ago. The attack represents a propaganda coup for the Taliban, which claimed responsibility in text messages to news organizations, saying it packed a four-wheel-drive vehicle with at least 700 pounds of explosives. The Kabul car bombing took place near the American University on Darulaman Road, among the capital's busiest, which runs past parliament and the decaying Darulaman Palace -?

As many as 13 Americans were killed Saturday when a suicide bomber struck their armored military bus in Kabul, in what may be the single deadliest attack on U.S. citizens in the Afghan capital since the war began a decade ago. A U.S. official said the death toll was believed to be 13 U.S. citizens: five service members and eight civilian contractors. But, the official said, a Canadian and at least one British national could also be among the dead. The full extent of the casualties was unclear, he said, because the massive explosion had made identifying the dead difficult.

For a beleaguered and increasingly isolated Afghan President Hamid Karzai, revelations of an alleged assassination plot hatched in Pakistan and involving one of his own bodyguards are another blow to the prospects for a deal to end the Afghan war. The Afghan government's accusation of a Pakistani link in the alleged assassination plot against the Afghan leader adds new tensions to a cross-border relationship already on edge. Lutfullah Mashal, a spokesman for Afghanistan's main intelligence agency, the National Directorate of Security, said the ringleaders of the assassination plot, an Egyptian and a Bangladeshi, were based in Pakistan's tribal areas.

In a rare and lethal security breach at the CIA's main base in Afghanistan's capital, a local employee shot and killed one U.S. citizen and wounded another, American and Afghan officials said Monday. It was the second attack in less than two weeks on a U.S. Embassy installation in Kabul. The Afghan assailant was also killed in the firefight, which broke out late Sunday, the embassy said in a statement. U.S. officials did not dispute reports that the American killed was a CIA contractor, but provided no other details.

Insurgents staged a brazen attack in the heart of the Afghan capital on Tuesday, firing rockets apparently aimed at the U.S. Embassy or the nearby headquarters of the NATO force. Heavy explosions echoed near a central square, as terrified Afghans fled the sound of fighting. "Again, again!" said an elderly shopkeeper as he hastily rolled down the metal shutter protecting his carpet store and prepared to flee. Insurgents appeared to have seized a tall building under construction as a staging ground for the attack with rockets and automatic weapons -- a tactic used previously in similar strikes elsewhere in the country.

Fierce fighting north of the Afghan capital sent waves of villagers fleeing Monday, but the Taliban Islamic army held fast at its positions outside Kabul. In the last week, opposition forces punched through Taliban defense lines north of Kabul, taking strategic cities and the Baghram air base until finally coming within rocket range of the capital.

A team of insurgent suicide bombers and gunmen struck a provincial capital Thursday, killing as many as 21 people in an audacious attack that underscored deteriorating security conditions across Afghanistan's restive south. Women and children accounted for about half the dead, Afghan officials said. The toll also included at least three policemen and an Afghan journalist. About three dozen people were reported injured. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the strike in Tarin Kot, the capital of Oruzgan province.

A new U.S. commander, Gen. John Allen, formally took control of the war in Afghanistan on Monday, inheriting a nearly decade-long conflict that has cost the lives of at least 1,667 American troops. Allen succeeds Gen. David H. Petraeus, who is leaving to head the CIA. Petraeus had been in command for only a year, hastily taking the helm after President Obama fired Gen. Stanley McChrystal after Rolling Stone magazine reported intemperate comments by his staff about the administration's civilian leadership.