Kandahar

NEW DELHI For Americans weary of nearly a dozen years of war, Afghanistan often seems like a country where nothing ever changes and the same story of ethnic and tribal struggle repeats itself in an endless loop. But Afghanistan's demographics have changed in significant ways over the past decade. Rather than being mired in a perpetual feudal twilight, Afghanistan is actually becoming a modern country. The statistical evidence of change, gathered from sources including data from the U.S. Agency for International Development , is...

AFGHANISTAN Bombs kill 9 in elite area near Kandahar Two bombs hidden in a motorcycle and a car exploded Friday evening inside an elite gated community linked to the family of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, killing at least nine people and wounding more than 70 near the southern city of Kandahar, an official said. The blasts happened inside Aino Mina, a housing complex on the northern outskirts of the city that was developed in part by Mahmoud Karzai, the president's younger brother.

KABUL — Ghulam Haider Hamidi had been warned. Friends and relatives had for months urged the mayor of Kandahar city to leave his treacherous post and return to his quiet life as an accountant in Northern Virginia. When his son-in-law told him this year that he was crazy to stay, Hamidi, 65, recounted a story. He had visited his home village the day before, he said, escorted by U.S. troops willing to die for Afghanistan. "It would be shameful for me to leave Afghanistan," Hamidi said.

KABUL, Afghanistan — Two bombs hidden in a motorcycle and a car exploded inside an elite gated community linked to the family of Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Friday evening, killing at least nine people and wounding more than 70 near the southern city of Kandahar, an official said. The blasts happened inside Aino Mina, a housing complex on the northern outskirts of the city that was developed in part by Mahmood Karzai, the president's younger brother. No one immediately claimed...

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — The U.S. military is planning to start withdrawing troops from this volatile southern city, shifting them to neighboring rural areas even as the Taliban shows it is capable of penetrating the city to attack, according to U.S. and Afghan military officials. The move is not without risk, because reclaiming Kandahar — the homeland of many Taliban leaders — still motivates the insurgency. Assassins have carried out a ruthless campaign against government officials in the city over the past year, and Kandahar's...

KABUL — Taliban fighters launched separate attacks on two U.S. bases in Kandahar on Thursday, exploding a car bomb outside a military outpost west of the city and firing rocket-propelled grenades at another garrison downtown, according to U.S. and Afghan officials. The violence, which killed at least three Afghans and wounded six Americans, indicated that the Taliban still has the ambition and ability to take on the symbols of American power in southern Afghanistan. U.S. officials have been encouraged by ...

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan , June 22 -- A tense quiet has settled here in Afghanistan's second-largest city, a little more than a week after hundreds of Taliban fighters mounted a dramatic prison break, then briefly took control of several villages in the area. One of the city's main traffic circles, Chowk-e Shahidan, was nearly empty, except for a cluster of armored vehicles manned by Afghan and Canadian soldiers. Just a few shoppers roamed nearby Herat Bazaar, Kandahar's largest market, and a couple of dusty...

JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash. — An Army staff sergeant accused of massacring 16 civilians in southern Afghanistan in the spring showed no remorse as he was taken into custody, one of his comrades testified Monday during the soldier's first day in court. "I thought I was doing the right thing," Staff. Sgt. Robert Bales told Cpl. David Godwin, the latter testified. Describing the sergeant's demeanor that morning, Godwin said Bales looked like "he got caught with his...

Will the United States continue to conduct counterterrorism operations in South Asia? That question is central to any discussion about U.S. troop presence and mission in Afghanistan. The answer can be yes only if we pursue and support the current strategy, retaining roughly 68,000 troops in Afghanistan into 2014 and about half that number thereafter. Amateurs can discuss imaginary, over-the-horizon "light footprint" strategies. Professionals must consider logistics. Physics and military reality dictate the minimum...

KABUL — Afghan President Hamid Karzai said in a speech Thursday that the United States wants to retain nine bases in Afghanistan after NATO's formal withdrawal in 2014, his first concrete statement on American plans to stay in the country beyond 2014. U.S. officials would not confirm any interest in keeping nine bases while talks are ongoing, but Karzai said they have made that position clear in negotiations over the bilateral security agreement that would guide the long-term American...

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — A roadside bomb struck a U.S. convoy and killed four American troops in southern Afghanistan Tuesday, while a motorcycle bomb in a crowded village market in a neighboring province killed at least three people, officials said. The blast that hit the American convoy took place in the Zhari district of Kandahar province, said NATO spokesman Col. Thomas Collins. Kandahar is the spiritual heartland of the Taliban, and one of the most volatile regions in Afghanistan.

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — NATO says 4 US soldiers killed in roadside explosion in southern Afghanistan. Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

KABUL, Afghanistan — A truck bombing Monday killed three coalition service members in southern Afghanistan, NATO said in a statement. A local official said the attack targeted a base operated by troops from Georgia. Omer Zawak, spokesman for the governor of the southern Helmand province, said the truck bomb exploded at the entrance to the Georgian outpost in the Musa Qala district of the province, one of the most volatile regions of Afghanistan. The deaths...

KABUL — Afghan President Hamid Karzai said in a speech Thursday that the United States wants to retain nine bases in Afghanistan after NATO's formal withdrawal in 2014, his first concrete statement on American plans to stay in the country beyond 2014. U.S. officials would not confirm any interest in keeping nine bases while talks are ongoing, but Karzai said they have made that position clear in negotiations over the bilateral security agreement that would guide the long-term American mission here.

KABUL — The homespun Afghan burqa is under siege from east and west these days — cut-price competition from China, and Western influences that are leading many urban women to exchange the full-body cloak for a simple headscarf. The decline is most noticeable in Kabul, the capital, where women began joining the workforce and adopting Western dress soon after the 2001 U.S.-led invasion that ousted the puritanical Taliban. Demand for burqas appears strongest in the...

CHICAGO — Secretary of State John F. Kerry met privately on Monday with the parents and siblings of the Foreign Service officer who was killed this month in Afghanistan. The meeting at O'Hare International Airport came as Kerry returned from an overseas trip that began on April 6, the day Anne Smedinghoff died in a suicide bomb attack. The 25-year-old was the first Foreign Service officer from the State Department to die in Afghanistan since the war there began in 2001.

KABUL, Afghanistan — A truck bombing Monday killed three coalition service members in southern Afghanistan, NATO said in a statement. A local official said the attack targeted a base operated by troops from Georgia. Omer Zawak, spokesman for the governor of the southern Helmand province, said the truck bomb exploded at the entrance to the Georgian outpost in the Musa Qala district of the province, one of the most volatile regions of Afghanistan. The deaths brought the number of...

JALALABAD, Afghanistan — No one here knows the man whose left leg is shackled to the wall of cell No. 5. Last week, he finished tearing his mattress to shreds and then moved onto his clothes, ripping his shirt and pants off before falling asleep naked. "He's insane," say the villagers who have come to gawk at him. "He doesn't know whether he's in this world or another. " "He's getting better!" said Mia Shafiq, the man responsible for his recovery and the one who shackled him to the wall of a...

Ronald E. Neumann was U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan from 2005 to 2007. He is the author of " The Other War: Winning and Losing in Afghanistan . " The United States has problems in Afghanistan , with the Taliban, Pakistan and Afghan President Hamid Karzai. The Obama administration is making them worse by dilatory decision-making about how many U.S. troops will remain there after 2014. While recent news has focused on the latest spats with Karzai , there are some bright spots.