Military Deployment

The southern Afghan province of Helmand, part of the Pashtun heartland from which the Taliban emerged in the 1990s, has become the most violent and narcotics-plagued region in the country by far, according to the first formal Pentagon report to Congress on the Afghan conflict. Security for Helmand is the chief responsibility of Britain, which has about 8,200 troops in the province. Since British forces took command of the province two years ago, 103 of their soldiers have been killed.

Prince William took part in a British navy helicopter raid that opened fire on a speedboat believed to be used by drug runners, the Ministry of Defense said. It was the second time the prince, second in line to the throne, has helped his crew mates on the Iron Duke go after suspected narcotics traffickers in the Caribbean as part of his program to gain experience in all the branches of the British armed forces. Royal Marine commandos aboard a Lynx used high-power, long-range rifles to disable the 30-foot vessel after it ignored warning shots.

Anxious to avoid a U.S. intervention or cutoff of funds, Pakistan's government is proposing military and intelligence changes that both countries say are needed to counter the growing threat from insurgents, officials say. Pakistan wants to deploy a specially trained unit of its Special Service Group into tribal areas along its western border. The region has become a haven for Al Qaeda and Taliban forces that increasingly are attacking Western soldiers in neighboring Afghanistan, officials say.

Amid rising anger over civilian deaths in Afghanistan, President Bush says he is sending more forces to fight there, but cautions "there will be times" when U.S. strikes result in the loss of innocent life. In remarks prepared for delivery today to an audience of military officers, Bush is accepting recommendations from senior officers for a modest troop reduction in Iraq as part of a plan that would shift some units to Afghanistan.

U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker on Thursday accused Iran of "pushing very hard" to derail a security agreement that would authorize American troops to remain in Iraq past Dec. 31. Crocker also speculated that Iran may be tightening its ties to Shiite Muslim militias in Iraq and co-opting them from anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada Sadr, who for the last year has ordered his followers to largely refrain from violence.

The U.S. military handed security responsibility for Wasit province to Iraqi authorities Wednesday, putting Baghdad in full control of 13 of the country's 18 provinces, including all of those in the mostly Shiite Muslim south. U.S. and Iraqi forces have been jointly seeking to shut down arms smuggling routes from Iran that use Wasit as a transit point before the weapons are taken elsewhere in Iraq. The weapons are thought to be going to Shiite militant groups. U.S.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said Friday that he would like to send more American forces to the war in Afghanistan before national elections scheduled for next year, and that grim depictions of the 7-year-old war are "far too pessimistic." Gates said additional forces would provide greater security and predicted that conditions would "be under enough control to allow the elections to take place" in the fall.

China signaled Wednesday that it may send warships to help fight pirates off the coast of Somalia, a sign of Beijing's increasing willingness to flex its military muscle. Although China has participated in United Nations peacekeeping operations in Africa, its navy has seldom left the Pacific region. The Global Times, a newspaper tied to the ruling Communist Party, called the possible deployment China's "biggest naval expedition since the 15th century."

As 2006 came to an end, the steadily rising toll of U.S. troops killed in Iraq hit another grim milestone -- 3,000. The latest marker came Sunday as President Bush prepared to lay out his proposals for changing U.S. strategy in Iraq. Bush has been meeting with advisors at his ranch near Crawford, Texas, and White House officials have said he could announce his plans this week. Bush appears to be leaning toward a troop increase. Some advisors believe more troops could allow U.S.

Ever since Iraq began spiraling toward chaos, the war's intellectual architects -- the so-called neoconservatives -- have found themselves under attack in Washington policy salons and, more important, within the Bush administration. Eventually, Paul D. Wolfowitz, the Defense department's most senior neocon, went to the World Bank. His Pentagon colleague Douglas J. Feith departed for academia. John R. Bolton left the State Department for a stint at the United Nations.