North Atlantic Treaty Organization

In an unusual public criticism, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said he believes NATO forces currently deployed in southern Afghanistan do not know how to combat a guerrilla insurgency, a deficiency that could be contributing to the rising violence in the fight against the Taliban. "I'm worried we're deploying [military advisors] that are not properly trained and I'm worried we have some military forces that don't know how to do counterinsurgency operations," Gates said in an interview.

The Dutch Defense Ministry on Wednesday summoned the U.S. ambassador as other American allies denounced criticism of NATO forces in Afghanistan by U.S. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates. The U.S. ambassador, Roland Arnall, met with ministry officials to offer a "clarification of the comments" by Gates, said chief State Department spokesman Sean McCormack.

NATO is unlikely to immediately put Ukraine and Georgia on a course toward membership, the group's spokesman said Wednesday night, dealing a setback to President Bush, who has pushed hard to expand the 26-nation alliance to include the two countries on Russia's southern flank that had been part of the Soviet Union.

For weeks now, the men in black turbans have been coming. They travel in pairs or small groups, on battered motorbikes or in dusty pickups, materializing out of the desert with Kalashnikovs and rocket launchers slung from their shoulders. With the advent of warmer weather, villagers say, Taliban fighters are filtering back from their winter shelters in Pakistan, ensconcing themselves across Afghanistan's wind-swept south.

Hundreds of Taliban fighters have invaded villages just outside Afghanistan's second-largest city, forcing NATO and Afghan troops to rush in and frightened residents to flee. The Taliban assault Monday into the Arghandab district on the outskirts of Kandahar came three days after a Taliban attack on Kandahar's prison that freed 400 insurgent fighters. Those fighters, NATO acknowledged Monday, appear to be massing outside the city, the Taliban's former power base. The U.S.

When the Taliban seized a string of villages outside one of Afghanistan's largest cities this week, NATO-led forces moved fast, airlifting in hundreds of Afghan and Western soldiers and sending warplanes and attack helicopters into the skies. In less than 48 hours, they had driven out the insurgents. Afghan authorities declared Thursday that the brief Taliban incursion near the southern city of Kandahar had been successfully repelled.

The Afghan government announced Thursday that it had fired three senior police officials in the southern province of Kandahar, two weeks after the Taliban staged a spectacular prison break that freed hundreds of militants. Insurgents freed in the June 13 assault on Kandahar's main jail quickly joined ranks with local Taliban fighters and briefly overran part of a strategic district close to the city.

At least 45 international troops, including at least 27 Americans, died in Afghanistan in June, the deadliest month since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion to oust the Taliban, according to an Associated Press count. It was also the second straight month in which militants killed more U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan than in Iraq. The Taliban in June staged a sophisticated jailbreak that freed about 900 prisoners, then briefly overran a strategic valley outside Kandahar.

The commander of foreign troops in Afghanistan said Tuesday that he had issued new orders aimed at reducing the number of civilians accidentally killed in airstrikes and raids. Army Gen. David D. McKiernan also said he needed more troops than previously promised. After an additional Army brigade arrives early next year, McKiernan said, he will need three more brigades -- potentially more than 20,000 troops once support units are added. Defense Secretary Robert M.

Afghan and NATO-led forces killed 18 insurgents as dozens of Taliban fighters prepared to attack the capital of the southern province of Helmand for the second time since Saturday, police said Wednesday. Violence has surged in Afghanistan this year to its highest level since U.S.-led and Afghan forces toppled the Taliban after the Sept. 11 attacks. Many in the West fear they are now losing the military campaign and the support of Afghans.