Afghanistan

Reporting from Kabul, Afghanistan, and Istanbul, Turkey -- The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan on Saturday visited the scene of a disputed NATO airstrike, a highly unusual gesture apparently meant to signal how seriously the alliance takes civilian casualties, which have been one of the most contentious issues in the war. NATO has launched an investigation into Friday's predawn strike on two hijacked fuel tankers in northern Afghanistan, which...

Soon after Barack Obama is sworn in as president, he will face a crucial decision about the future of the war in Afghanistan: what to do with thousands of new U.S. troops that will flow into the country over the course of the year. Within the Pentagon, a vigorous debate has emerged about what the top priority should be for those forces.

Key Democrats on Capitol Hill warned Thursday that a decision by President Obama to send more troops to Afghanistan could trigger an uprising within the party, possibly including an attempt to cut off funds for the buildup. "I believe we need to more narrowly focus our efforts and have a much more achievable and targeted policy in that region," said Rep. David R. Obey (D-Wis.), chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. Otherwise, he said, "we run the risk of repeating the mistakes we made in Vietnam and the Russians made in Afghanistan."

Far from the prestigious windowed offices on the outer ring of the Pentagon, a new war room focusing entirely on the conflicts in Afghanistan and Pakistan sits deep inside a cavernous basement. Created by Navy Adm. Michael G. Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Pakistan Afghanistan Coordination Cell is intended to bring together the Pentagon's top strategy and intelligence experts. The cell is also a visible symbol of how much the related conflicts have become Mullen's war.

President Obama said after meeting with top U.S. military leaders Wednesday that targeting extremists would be a top priority for the armed forces in Afghanistan. Obama met for nearly two hours with the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the secure Pentagon conference room known as Tank. He emerged to shake hands with troops and promised to increase the involvement of civilian U.S. government agencies to work on governance, agriculture, civil justice and other issues in Afghanistan.

There are two wars going on in Afghanistan. One is to defeat the Taliban, and that war is not going well. The other is to liberate women, and that war has hardly begun. If the first war is won but the second is lost, Afghanistan will turn into a failed state -- a caldron of violence and misery, home to extremism and totally outside the Western orbit of influence. Last week's election, however imperfect, is welcome, but it means little as long as women remain enslaved in this patriarchal, tradition-bound culture.

A senior U.S. diplomat accused Iran of transferring weapons to Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan. Undersecretary of State R. Nicholas Burns, speaking in Paris, said Tehran was funding insurrections across the Middle East -- and "even transferring arms to the Taliban in Afghanistan." Tehran denies the accusation. In Afghanistan last week, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert M.

Airstrikes by NATO helicopters hunting Taliban fighters ripped through three homes in a village in southern Afghanistan. Residents and the provincial governor said at least nine civilians, including women and children, were killed. Kandahar Gov. Asadullah Khalid said it appeared that no Taliban fighters were in the village of Ashogho at the time of the airstrikes. Angry villagers condemned the attack. NATO said it regretted any civilian casualties and that it makes every effort to minimize them.