Afghanistan

BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan (AFP) - When US Captain Andy Gray and his specialist rescue team heard a helicopter was missing in the Afghan mountains, adrenaline kicked in and the pilots raced into action. Full Story »

WASHINGTON - Sen. John McCain says President Barack Obama's announcement that U.S. troops will begin to leave Afghanistan in July 2011 sends the wrong message to the Taliban and has confused countries in the region. Full Story »

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama's national security adviser says the July 2011 date for the beginning of a U.S. troop withdrawal in Afghanistan is "not a cliff." Full Story »

WASHINGTON - Defense Secretary Robert Gates rejects any suggestion that setting a transition date for withdrawing U.S. forces in Afghanistan will embolden the Taliban. Full Story »

WASHINGTON - Defense Secretary Robert Gates says Americans should expect a significant U.S. military presence in Afghanistan for another two to four years. Full Story »

WASHINGTON - Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is expressing strong doubts that Taliban leaders will change the path of violence they are now following. Full Story »

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, who left for the United States on Sunday to meet President Barack Obama, said Turkey would not contribute additional troops to Afghanistan. Full Story »

ANKARA, Turkey - Turkey's prime minister has ruled out sending additional troops to Afghanistan but says the country is willing to train the Afghan army and police. Full Story »

KABUL - President Barack Obama has his troop surge. Afghanistan's beleaguered security forces have theirs. Full Story »

WASHINGTON - Defense Secretary Robert Gates says the United States' relationship with Afghanistan is going to begin changing in July 2011. Full Story »

WASHINGTON - The switchboards and e-mail inboxes of members of Congress are not seeing much of a surge from President Barack Obama's plan to send more U.S. troops into Afghanistan. Full Story »

ANKARA (AFP) - Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan meets Monday with US President Barack Obama for talks expected to focus on NATO reinforcements in Afghanistan and Ankara's efforts to curb Kurdish rebels based in Iraq. Full Story »

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AFP) - US, British and Afghan troops pushed deeper into Taliban villages in the first major offensive since President Barack Obama unveiled a new war strategy, an official said Saturday. Full Story »

KABUL (Reuters) - U.S. Marines pressed into a remote Taliban stronghold on Saturday with their first major assault in Afghanistan since President Barack Obama earmarked 30,000 more troops to try to turn the tide on the Taliban insurgency. Full Story »

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Nazia is an 8-year-old in tattered secondhand clothes whose name means "hope." Full Story »

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Twenty-five NATO allies promised on Friday to send about 7,000 more troops to Afghanistan, backing U.S. President Barack Obama's new war strategy and reinforcing efforts to defeat the Taliban. Full Story »

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Friday voiced cautious hope that France would come up with more troops in Afghanistan as part of the new US-led strategy. Full Story »

BRUSSELS - NATO allies will bolster the American troop surge in Afghanistan by sending at least 7,000 soldiers of their own, officials said Friday in pledges that U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton described as crucial to turning the tide in the stalemated war. Full Story »