Taliban

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McChrystal: No One's Winning in Afghanistan

Taliban have lost momentum, says top US commanders

(Newser) - The good news is, the Taliban aren't winning in Afghanistan. The bad news is, nobody else is winning either, according to the top US commander in Afghanistan. The US has made some progress, however, and the insurgency has lost the momentum many believed it had gained a year ago, Gen....

Obama Open to Taliban Peace Talks

Karzai plan wins tentative support

(Newser) - Hamid Karzai has won some very tentative support from President Obama for his plan to try to make peace with Taliban leaders. At a joint press conference yesterday, Obama said when Karzai holds talks this summer, reintegration into Afghan society chould be on the table, the Los Angeles Times reports....

Investigators Puzzled by Shahzad's Incompetence

Lack of bomb-making skills suggest he was a 'C-Team' recruit

(Newser) - For a guy who supposedly trained with the Taliban, Faisal Shahzad seems to have been a pretty lousy bombmaker, and this ineptitude has puzzled investigators. While the Taliban field manual has detailed bomb-making instructions, the device Shahzad left in Times Square was amateurishly assembled and used the wrong components, Peter...

Taliban Now Say They Didn't Send 'Brave' NY Bomber

Pakistani militants say they're proud of Shahzad, but he's not one of them

(Newser) - The Pakistani Taliban have done a U-turn on their claim of responsibility for the Times Square bomb attempt. Group officials now say they had nothing to do with the bomb—but they are "proud" of the "brave job" done by suspect Faisal Shahzad. American law enforcement officials have...

Money Man Sought in NY Bomb Plot

Officials have the name of carrier linked to bomb purchases

(Newser) - Investigators are on the hunt for a courier who funneled cash to Faisal Shahzad ahead of his failed Times Square car bombing . Officials have the name of someone who helped Shahzad pay for the second-hand sport utility vehicle and other materials he used to build the gasoline-and-propane bomb he has...

Karzai's Peace Plan: Exile Taliban Leaders

Plan calls for "deradicalization" classes, jobs

(Newser) - Taliban leaders would be allowed to go peacefully into exile, while their warriors would be given jobs and “deradicalization” classes under a new peace plan that will be proposed later this month by Hamid Karzai's government in Afghanistan. The write-up seen by the Guardian refers to Taliban fighters as...

NY Bomb Probe Focusing on Pakistani Taliban

Militant group appears ready to go global

(Newser) - The Pakistani Taliban's claim of responsibility for the Times Square bombing was greeted with widespread skepticism, but investigators are now focusing on the group in the wake of suspect Faisal Shahzad's arrest. Shahzad has told interrogators that he received training in Waziristan—a militant hotbed in Pakistan's frontier region—and...

Taliban Tries to Hijack Times Square Bombing: Experts

Hakimullah Mehsud appears alive in one video

(Newser) - Pakistan's Taliban did its best to claim credit(?) for Saturday's failed car bomb strike in Times Square, releasing three videos in rapid succession. One claimed outright responsibility for the attack, and two others starred Hakimullah Mehsud, the chief the US had thought it had killed. In a video allegedly taped...

Pakistani Taliban Claims Times Square Car Bomb

Law enforcement skeptical but alert level remains high

(Newser) - The Pakistani Taliban says the failed Times Square car bomb was the work of its operatives, but officials investigating the incident are dubious, reports the Daily News . The terrorist group has a history of claiming credit for incidents it had nothing to do with, and initial investigation results suggest "...

US Strike Didn't Kill Pakistan Taliban Chief

Reports of Hakimullah Mehsud's death greatly exaggerated

(Newser) - Pakistani Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud is now believed to have survived a US missile strike earlier this year, but has lost clout within the militant network, a senior intelligence official says. The revelation contradicts initial confidence among intelligence officials that the brash militant leader died in a mid-January missile attack...

Jones Puts Foot in Mouth With Jewish Joke

National security adviser draws fire from conservatives

(Newser) - Jim Jones gave a major speech at a top Middle East think tank last week, but the information he imparted has been drowned out by the kerfluffle over the joke he opened his remarks with—in which a Jewish merchant fleeces a thirsty Taliban fighter. It's tame stuff, and the...

Taliban Suspected in Schoolgirls' Poisoning

Militants deny involvement after 88 fall ill

(Newser) - At least 88 schoolgirls and their teachers have been hospitalized in Kunduz in northern Afghanistan over the last week because of what authorities suspect are poison gas attacks by the Taliban. The militant group, however—which isn't known for its unwillingness to own up to atrocities—firmly denies involvement, the ...

Karzai, White House Mend Fences; Visit On

Afghan president will travel to Washington next month as scheduled

(Newser) - The Obama administration and Hamid Karzai have buried the hatchet, and the Afghan president will visit Washington next month as scheduled, reports the Washington Post . The White House had threatened to call off the visit because of Karzai's recent shenanigans—including a vow to join the Taliban if Afghanistan's Western...

Taliban Leader Edges Closer to Peace Talks

Omar apparently no longer interested in ruling Afghanistan

(Newser) - Peace talks with the Taliban? The Times of London thinks it's a possibility after an interview with two liaisons of supreme leader Mullar Omar. The language is iffy—the story says Omar "indicated" that he "may be willing" to talk with western politicians—but an unnamed US military...

Obama Doubles Special Ops in Afghanistan

Administration fears time is running out to stop Taliban

(Newser) - The Obama administration has more than doubled the number of special forces in Afghanistan, tasking them with hunting down Taliban leaders—in part because it’s worried that the US has a dwindling window to defang the insurgency before its scheduled 2011 withdrawal, senior officials tell the LA Times . They’...

US Soldier Begs to Be Free in Taliban Video

'Afghan war not worth the cost,' he says

(Newser) - "I'm begging you, please, bring me home," pleads an Idaho soldier in a new video released yesterday by his Taliban captors. Private Bowe Bergdahl, captured last summer in Afghanistan, talks of his love for his family, friends and sailing. "This war isn't worth the waste of human...

Crazy Karzai Regime Is 'Too Big to Fail'

Erratic Afghan leader understands how deep US is in, acts accordingly

(Newser) - The US is engaged in “asymmetrical” warfare with al-Qaeda and the Taliban, Fred Kaplan writes, but it also suffers an asymmetrical relationship with an increasingly erratic head of state—Hamid Karzai. His regime “depends entirely on the United States,” sure, but because Western powers “have—and...

Afghan President Threatens to Join the Taliban

Under pressure, Karzai becomes increasingly erratic

(Newser) - Hamid Karzai has told Afghan lawmakers he will join the Taliban if his western backers kept pushing him to reform. The legislators said the Afghan president's comments shouldn't be taken at face value—he was pandering to pro-Taliban members of parliament, and he seems unconcerned about losing western support. The...

CIA Drones Batter Pakistan Militants

'Fast and furious' drone campaign hits Qaeda, Taliban hard

(Newser) - Stepped-up CIA drone attacks in the Pakistani region of North Waziristan have hit al-Qaeda and the Taliban hard in recent months, forcing many militants to retreat to mountain tunnels and placing the Haqqani leaders under increasing pressure. Bombardment of the militant stronghold has become "fast and furious" this year,...

World's Top Pot Source: Afghanistan

Country slides into first place with 'astonishing' crop yields

(Newser) - The country that supplies the lion's share of the world's opium has become the top cannabis producer as well, according to report from the UN's drug agency. Other countries have more land devoted to marijuana, UNDOC chief Antonio Maria Costa says, but Afghan farmers achieve "astonishingly high" yields, producing...

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