Afghan National Army

Afghanistan's two main northern warlords relinquished dozens of tanks and heavy guns to the Afghan National Army. The action by Abdul Rashid Dostum and Atta Mohammed, whose armies have attacked each other for two years, is a small triumph for the government's attempts to control the provinces. The warlords handed over the arms at separate compounds near Mazar-i-Sharif.

Civilians bore the brunt of insurgent violence in a series of attacks Friday and Saturday that killed at least 15 people and injured 24, Afghan officials said. The bombings took place in the south and the northern province of Kunduz, both home to the Pashtun plurality fueling the Taliban insurgency against NATO troops and the Afghan government. In the most deadly attack, a roadside bomb struck a pickup truck loaded with Afghan men Friday morning in a rural stretch of Helmand province, killing 15, Daoud Ahmadi, a spokesman for the governor, disclosed Saturday.

The Afghan army will reach a targeted strength of 70,000 within four months, but that will be insufficient to stand against internal and external threats, a government spokesman said. The Afghan National Army now stands at around 57,000. The 70,000 target was set at an international conference after the fundamentalist Taliban regime's ouster in 2001.

With training of Afghanistan's army and police ahead of schedule, American officials now believe the U.S.-led military coalition could begin transferring some security responsibilities to Afghan forces as early as spring. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said in an interview that given faster-than-expected progress in training army units, it was likely that those forces could assume primary responsibility for security sooner in less violent areas of the country, freeing up NATO troops for operations elsewhere.

As the new year begins, the Afghanistan surge is underway. Army brigades and Marine regiments have been alerted to deploy, and their lead elements are on the move. Even in these early stages, it is not too soon to begin to think about how this year will end in Afghanistan. Key military and civilian national security officials have said that this December, they will give President Obama an assessment of the surge and make recommendations about how it should proceed. Those of us who were in Iraq for the surge of 2007 and who have fought in Afghanistan can pretty much predict how the war in the latter nation will unfold.

The U.S. military has stopped handing over confiscated weapons to Afghan militia fighters after criticism that it was strengthening regional warlords at the expense of the national government. The change was made quietly after reports Oct. 16 that weapons caches were going to militia fighters traveling with American forces, U.S. military spokesman Col. Roger King said Friday.

Civilians bore the brunt of insurgent violence in a series of attacks Friday and Saturday that killed at least 15 people and injured 24, Afghan officials said. The bombings took place in the south and the northern province of Kunduz, both home to the Pashtun plurality fueling the Taliban insurgency against NATO troops and the Afghan government. In the most deadly attack, a roadside bomb struck a pickup truck loaded with Afghan men Friday morning in a rural stretch of Helmand province, killing 15, Daoud Ahmadi, a spokesman for the governor, disclosed Saturday.

The suicide bombing that killed seven CIA employees at a U.S. base will temporarily slow U.S. intelligence-gathering in eastern Afghanistan, but the agency will not retrench its ambitious buildup in the country while it conducts a security review, officials said Thursday. Military and intelligence officials were scrambling to determine how the bomber penetrated a forbidding network of barriers, barbed wire and watchtowers at Forward Operating Base Chapman in Khowst province near the Pakistani border, and made his way deep inside to set off a thunderous blast.

Armed with a rocket-propelled grenade launcher and an automatic rifle, a rogue Afghan soldier attacked a group of British troops early Tuesday in southern Afghanistan, killing three of the soldiers and wounding four others before escaping. The Afghan soldier was assigned to a patrol base shared by NATO troops and the Afghan National Army in the volatile southern province of Helmand, according to NATO spokespeople and Afghanistan's Defense Ministry. Helmand is where American troops mounted a large-scale offensive earlier this year to uproot Taliban insurgents from a stronghold in the town of Marjah.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld flew into this capital Saturday for a daylong visit, his Chinook helicopter landing on the U.S. Embassy grounds for security reasons and spraying a hail of dust over waiting Afghan military officials. Rumsfeld was coy, however, about reports that members of the U.S. military are involved in anti-terrorist operations across the border in Pakistan, insisting that Washington has no business disclosing such operations. He said only that the U.S.

Armed with a rocket-propelled grenade launcher and an automatic rifle, a rogue Afghan soldier attacked a group of British troops early Tuesday in southern Afghanistan, killing three and wounding four before escaping. The Afghan soldier was assigned to a patrol base shared by NATO troops and the Afghan national army in the volatile southern province of Helmand, according to alliance spokespeople and Afghanistan's Defense Ministry. Helmand is where American troops mounted a large-scale offensive this year to uproot Taliban insurgents from a stronghold in the town of Marja.

From a rocky knoll 600 feet above the lush Arghandab Valley, the war in Afghanistan looks deceptively peaceful. At dawn Friday, Afghan girls stooped to milk cows in mud-walled compounds. Farmers trudged across furrowed fields, carrying scythes for cutting wheat. Boys flew kites of tattered plastic from rooftops. Donkeys brayed. Peering through the morning haze from his perch atop Observation Post Kuhat, Army Spc. Victor Smyrnow paid scant attention to the bucolic scene below.

As the new year begins, the Afghanistan surge is underway. Army brigades and Marine regiments have been alerted to deploy, and their lead elements are on the move. Even in these early stages, it is not too soon to begin to think about how this year will end in Afghanistan. Key military and civilian national security officials have said that this December, they will give President Obama an assessment of the surge and make recommendations about how it should proceed. Those of us who were in Iraq for the surge of 2007 and who have fought in Afghanistan can pretty much predict how the war in the latter nation will unfold.

The suicide bombing that killed seven CIA employees at a U.S. base will temporarily slow U.S. intelligence-gathering in eastern Afghanistan, but the agency will not retrench its ambitious buildup in the country while it conducts a security review, officials said Thursday. Military and intelligence officials were scrambling to determine how the bomber penetrated a forbidding network of barriers, barbed wire and watchtowers at Forward Operating Base Chapman in Khowst province near the Pakistani border, and made his way deep inside to set off a thunderous blast.

He was the person people always wanted to be around. A standout football player and homecoming king, Francis L. Toner IV had a smile for everyone at Westlake High School in Westlake Village. "The kid was pure goodness," said Christina Harrison, who taught him U.S. government in his senior year.

The Afghan army will reach a targeted strength of 70,000 within four months, but that will be insufficient to stand against internal and external threats, a government spokesman said. The Afghan National Army now stands at around 57,000. The 70,000 target was set at an international conference after the fundamentalist Taliban regime's ouster in 2001.

Lying on their backs at a military academy compound here, about 30 bearded men in green camouflage fatigues do bicycle pedals in the air before turning on their stomachs for a rough approximation of push-ups. Welcome to the new Afghan National Army, troop strength 1,800 and, ever so slowly, growing.

He was the person people always wanted to be around. A standout football player and homecoming king, Francis L. Toner IV had a smile for everyone at Westlake High School in Westlake Village. "The kid was pure goodness," said Christina Harrison, who taught him U.S. government in his senior year.

Afghanistan's two main northern warlords relinquished dozens of tanks and heavy guns to the Afghan National Army. The action by Abdul Rashid Dostum and Atta Mohammed, whose armies have attacked each other for two years, is a small triumph for the government's attempts to control the provinces. The warlords handed over the arms at separate compounds near Mazar-i-Sharif.