Western Troops

Reflecting a quickening tempo of combat in Afghanistan as a U.S. troop buildup gets underway in earnest, five Western troops died Monday in or following clashes in the south and east. At least three of the dead were Americans. It was the worst daily toll in months for the Western coalition, which had originally given a total of six troop deaths. Foreign forces will increase this year by 30,000 American troops and an additional 7,000 from allies in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

KABUL, Afghanistan — For the first time, a member of Afghanistan's elite special forces has carried out a deadly attack against an American military mentor, a senior Afghan army official said Friday, an ominous escalation in the "green-on-blue" shootings that have threatened Western troops' partnership with the Afghan police and army. Until now, rank-and-file members of the Afghan security forces had been responsible for most of the dozens of "insider" shootings targeting members of the NATO force in recent years.

Nine Western service members died Tuesday in a helicopter crash in southern Afghanistan, making this the deadliest year for NATO in the nine-year war. Military officials did not immediately disclose the nationalities of the dead or say precisely where the crash happened. Two other Western troops, an Afghan soldier and an American civilian were injured, NATO's International Security Assistance Force said in a statement. But an ISAF official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment publicly, said the crash took place in Zabul province, a Taliban stronghold.

KABUL, Afghanistan — President Hamid Karzai suggested Thursday that a speeded-up departure of Western troops is the only way to prevent a recurrence of "painful experiences" such as the sight of American soldiers posing with the body parts of dead insurgents. In a statement issued by the Afghan presidential palace 24 hours after the Los Angeles Times published photos showing U.S. troops with the remains of suicide bombers and mugging for the camera, Karzai called the behavior depicted "inhumane and provocative.

Two explosions in eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday killed at least three children and an Afghan policeman and injured dozens of people, including nine Western troops, officials said. The blasts -- one outside the east's main urban hub of Jalalabad and the other in troubled Khowst province, scene of last week's suicide bombing that killed seven CIA employees -- come on the heels of what military officials describe as a major offensive against the Haqqani network, a Pakistan-based insurgent group blamed for some of the war's deadliest attacks.

A helicopter crash and insurgent attacks Monday in Afghanistan's volatile south killed seven Western troops, including at least two Americans, in what is rapidly becoming one of the war's most lethal months for foreign forces. The crash, which killed a U.S. service member and three Australian commandos, marked the second loss of a NATO helicopter this month in southern Afghanistan's Kandahar and Helmand provinces. The south, the Taliban militants' traditional base of power, is expected to be the focal point of Western military activity in coming months, and combat casualties have been concentrated there.

Libyan rebels said Wednesday that they support Western forces assisting in the evacuation of civilians and other humanitarian missions despite their objections to foreign troops on the battlefield. "In order to protect, to have a safe zone for any refugees, it has to obviously be protected from the ground and air and sea," said Shamsiddin Abdulmolah, a spokesman for the Transitional National Council, the rebel movement's political wing. "We certainly don't have the means to do that.

Western troops in Afghanistan fired on a passenger bus outside the southern city of Kandahar on Monday, killing four civilians aboard and injuring 18 others, Afghan and NATO officials said. Angry anti-American and anti-government protests erupted soon afterward. NATO's International Security Assistance Force said it "deeply regrets the tragic loss of life" in the shooting and promised a speedy joint investigation with Afghan authorities. Military officials did not immediately identify the nationalities or branch of service of the troops involved.

Thousands of U.S. and other Western troops in the south of Afghanistan do battle daily with a foe far more ubiquitous than Taliban insurgents: dust. Chalky and powdery, it fouls engines and electronic gear. It seeps through the seams of clothing and sleeping bags. It cakes dry lips, stains sweaty faces and coats the interiors of tents and armored vehicles. Food and water take on a gritty tang.

Pointing up the dangers faced by Afghan civilians as insurgents take aim at Western troops, a minibus in eastern Afghanistan hit a roadside bomb Wednesday, killing 12 passengers, provincial officials said. Taliban fighters and other insurgents have made roadside bombs their weapon of choice. Although buried bombs are the No. 1 killer of Western troops, they kill and maim far larger numbers of Afghan civilians. Many of the devices are planted on roads known to be used by military convoys, but civilian vehicles travel them as well, often with deadly results.

This has been one of the worst fortnights in the increasingly unhappy 10 1/2-year Afghan war for NATO and, above all, the United States and its ally, Britain. First there was the burning of the Korans at Bagram air base, which unleashed a wave of religious fury and revenge killings of U.S. troops. Then came the deaths of six British soldiers, incinerated by a giant Taliban bomb last week, which pushed the British death toll in the war over the symbolic 400 mark. Support in Britain for an increasingly unpopular war further deteriorated.

At the gate of the capital's army recruitment headquarters, a young Afghan sergeant in crisp camouflage and a jaunty beret demanded a letter of introduction from arriving visitors. But when one was produced, written in Dari, the dominant language in Kabul, he asked one of the visitors to read it to him. These days, Afghanistan's armed forces are under pressure as never before to dramatically step up their performance in everything from literacy to logistics. NATO is speeding up its transfer of fighting duties to the national police and army, and at the same time, the cash-pinched coalition intends to cut back substantially on plans for funding a long-term Afghan force strength of more than 350,000.

A powerful Taliban car bomb killed as many as 12 Afghan policemen and a child on Sunday in a southern town where Afghan forces took over security responsibilities from Western troops less than two weeks ago. The suicide attack on an Afghan police headquarters in Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand province, could bode ill for hopes that the Afghan police and army will be able to protect themselves and the civilian population against insurgents without...

One Afghan official likened the process to defusing a bomb: It has to be done, but best to speak softly and move carefully, lest it blow up in your face. Western troops have begun formally handing over security responsibilities to Afghan forces, a long-awaited transition considered crucial to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's plans for winding down the war in Afghanistan after a wrenching decade of fighting. By Monday, seven cities or provinces, most of them relatively tranquil, will be under the full control of the Afghan police and army, despite persistent fears about the Afghan forces' ability to maintain order, build the trust of local people and fend off the Taliban.

A suicide bombing killed five French soldiers in eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday, representing one of that country's largest one-day losses of the war. The attack took place in the Tagab district of Kapisa province, said provincial spokesman Sabor Wafa. NATO's International Security Assistance Force confirmed the deaths of five service members without specifying the nationality; French officials subsequently said the slain troops were French. France has said it will begin a phased withdrawal of its troops in Afghanistan.

Hope isn't a strategy. But it was a major part of NATO's decision to launch an air war against Libya's Moammar Kadafi almost three months ago. Back in March, when the bombing began, the leaders of France, Britain and the United States hoped Kadafi's regime would shatter under the shock and awe of modern munitions, and that Libyan military officers would take the advice of their European counterparts and overthrow their leader. None of that happened. Instead, France's Nicolas Sarkozy, Britain's David Cameron, President Obama and their allies are mired in a lengthening war of choice that none of them cared all that much about in the first place.

A bomb planted by a road killed 15 Afghan civilians Saturday, including eight children, in a volatile southern district where American forces last year made a major push to dislodge the Taliban, provincial officials said. Arghandab district, just outside the south's main city of Kandahar, was the scene of heavy fighting in the summer and fall of 2010. Military progress in the south has been touted as a sign of the success of last year's U.S. troop surge, but insurgents in recent weeks have been filtering back into some key districts, seeking to reclaim former strongholds.