International Security Assistance Force

Gunmen killed an Italian soldier about 40 miles outside the Afghan capital, Kabul, and wounded another, Italy's Defense Ministry said. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the shooting. Italy has about 2,880 troops in Afghanistan as part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force. They are mostly involved in peacekeeping and humanitarian duties.

KABUL, Afghanistan — Two foreign women working for a Swiss-based aid group have been kidnapped in the remote northeastern province of Badakhshan, Afghan officials said Wednesday. Three male Afghan colleagues were abducted as well, but one apparently escaped and then alerted the authorities, according to officials in Faizabad, the provincial capital. The medical team was captured by a group of gunmen Tuesday while traveling by donkey or horseback in an isolated district where floods have washed out roads, and an intensive search was underway, said Abdul Mahrouf Rasikh, a spokesman for the provincial governor.

The second of two American servicemen who disappeared last week in a Taliban-infested area south of the Afghan capital has been confirmed dead as well, a U.S. military official and Afghan authorities said Thursday. The body of Petty Officer 3rd Class Jarod Newlove was recovered and his family notified, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Newlove and his companion, Petty Officer 2nd Class Justin McNeley, were ambushed by Taliban fighters in Lowgar province on Friday.

President Obama says the uproar in Afghanistan over the burning of copies of the Muslim holy book on a NATO military base illustrates the need for the American military to transition out of that country. Obama said the Koran burning and the violence in its wake show the difficulties facing American forces even as they reduce their combat role in the region. "Yes, the situation with the Koran burning concerns me," Obama told reporters Tuesday. "I think that it is an indication of the challenges in that environment, and it's an indication that now is the time for us to transition.

A NATO operation killed six civilians, including a woman and a young girl, in a mountainous region of eastern Afghanistan, villagers and officials said. But the military alliance said its force killed four to eight militants. The governor of Kunar province, Sayed Fazelullah Wahidi, said four men also died in the airstrikes. Reports indicated there were foreign militants around the village, but Wahidi said all the dead were civilians. NATO's International Security Assistance Force said "four to eight enemy fighters" were killed and intelligence intercepts indicated "the hostile intent of the enemy to attack ISAF posts."

NATO-led troops killed an ally of President Hamid Karzai in southern Afghanistan in an overnight gun battle, officials said. Karzai said the death resulted from a "misunderstanding between foreign and local forces." Ruzi Khan Barakzai, former police chief of Oruzgan province and a tribal leader and militia commander, was killed Wednesday outside Tirin Kot. Australian special operations troops serving with NATO's International Security Assistance Force said they were fired upon and shot back.

The Western military reported Saturday that two service members had been missing since Friday after leaving their compound in Kabul. The Taliban claims to be holding them. The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) had no official comment, but a Reuters correspondent in Logar heard local radio broadcast appeals offering a $20,000 reward for information leading to the safe release of the two. "Early this morning two coalition personnel went missing. They are believed to have been captured by insurgents somewhere in Logar province," the broadcast said.

Three NATO soldiers died in separate clashes as the U.S. general who commanded American land forces during the invasion of Iraq took command of the 40-nation international campaign in Afghanistan. Army Gen. David D. McKiernan took charge of the 51,000-member International Security Assistance Force from Gen. Dan K. McNeill, who will retire from the U.S. Army after 40 years. In the latest violence, three ISAF soldiers were killed in attacks, two of them in eastern Afghanistan, where most of the forces are American.

Western military officials announced Wednesday they had reinstated use of a weapons system employed in a strike that killed 12 people inside an Afghan family home, most of them women and children. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization said an investigation found that the weapon had not malfunctioned in Sunday's strike, but that it still was not known why the house was rocketed. The deaths marked the first major episode of civilian casualties in a massive military offensive, spearheaded by U.S. Marines, which began before dawn Saturday in and around the southern Afghan town of Marja.

A suicide car bomb attack against a convoy of international troops in Afghanistan killed two soldiers and wounded four other people Saturday, while fighting in the south killed 16 Taliban militants, officials said. The bombing in the eastern city of Jalalabad involved soldiers with NATO's International Security Assistance Force, spokesman Maj. Martin O'Donnell said. He did not reveal the nationalities of the troops, but most near Jalalabad are American. Interior Ministry spokesman Zemeri Bashary said the blast also wounded four Afghan civilians and damaged five vehicles.

Some members of Congress are urging the popular website Twitter to stop hosting pro-Taliban tweets that celebrate attacks against American and allied forces in Afghanistan. Twitter executives have told lawmakers that the micro-posts do not violate the website's terms of service because the Taliban is not listed by the State Department as a foreign terrorist organization. That designation would make it illegal to provide "material support or resources" to the militant group. Twitter feeds, apparently from the Taliban, first appeared last year in Arabic and Pashto, one of the official languages of Afghanistan.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai confirmed Saturday that the United States had been in contact with the Taliban about a possible political settlement in the war here, which has dragged on for nearly a decade. His comments came as violence continued to rage across Afghanistan: Three suicide bombers attacked a police compound in Kabul's old city Saturday, killing four security officials and five civilians. And the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force said, without offering details, that two of its troops were killed in separate insurgent attacks in southern Afghanistan.

On a farewell visit to Afghanistan, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates predicted Saturday that the initial drawdown of American troops next month would be "modest" and played down the possibility of far-reaching changes in U.S. strategy this summer. Gates, who is stepping down as Defense secretary at the end of the month, acknowledged that the American public was growing weary of the nearly decadelong war. But it would be "premature" to change course until it becomes clear whether the U.S. and its allies can hold territory taken from the Taliban during the last year, he said.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates made a farewell visit to Afghanistan on Saturday as the NATO force announced the deaths of six service members in 24 hours. Four Western troops were killed in an explosion Saturday in eastern Afghanistan, the coalition said. NATO's International Security Assistance Force also disclosed the deaths of two service members in the south a day earlier. Before arriving in the country, Gates acknowledged that the American public was growing tired of the nearly decade-long war, and said that sentiment would play a part in decision-making about the course of the conflict.

There are "disturbing" signs Pakistan's government knows about insurgents crossing from their country into Afghanistan, U.S. Sen. John Kerry said Sunday as he toured the region. "Yes, there are insurgents coming across the border," he said at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan. "Yes, they are operating out of north Waziristan [Pakistan] and other areas of the sanctuaries, and yes, there is some evidence of Pakistan government knowledge of some of these activities in ways that is very disturbing.

The Western military on Sunday suffered its most lethal day in a month in Afghanistan, with seven troops killed in the south and east, the NATO force said. Meanwhile, the Afghan government said an Afghan diplomat kidnapped by insurgents two years ago in Pakistan's tribal areas had been freed a day earlier. A brief statement from the presidential palace credited his release on "persistent efforts" on the part of the Pakistani and Afghan governments but gave no details. The envoy, Abdul Khaliq Farahi, was released in eastern Afghanistan, across the border from where he had been seized.

Officials in northern Afghanistan said today that a NATO airstrike on hijacked fuel trucks had killed at least 40 people. Police Chief Gulam Mohyuddin said the airstrike hit two tankers in Kunduz province near the Tajikistan border. The blast occurred around midnight after the Taliban had hijacked two trucks that were delivering fuel to North Atlantic Treaty Organization forces. A spokesman for NATO forces said that the alliance had carried out an airstrike targeting insurgents in northern Afghanistan during the night.

Insurgents early Wednesday launched a bold attack on the largest U.S. installation in Afghanistan, leaving at least seven of the attackers dead. The fighting at the sprawling, heavily fortified Bagram air base, about 30 miles north of Kabul, began at dawn when Taliban fighters attacked with rockets, guns and grenades, the military said. NATO's International Security Assistance Force said in a statement that five Western service members had been wounded, but did not characterize the seriousness of their injuries.

About 20 insurgents armed with assault rifles and vests loaded with explosives launched a coordinated attack Friday against a NATO base in eastern Afghanistan, military officials said — the latest in a series of largely futile but psychologically rattling strikes against well-fortified Western installations. Five insurgents were killed and one captured in the strike, NATO's International Security Assistance Force said in a statement. There were no Western casualties, it said.