Nato

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — U.S. commanders in Afghanistan want to get war supplies rolling across Pakistan's borders again. So do Pakistanis in places high and low — from officials trying to balance the nation's budget to black marketeers who stand ready to plunder the NATO-contracted trucks and oil tankers expected to shortly resume passage into Afghanistan after nearly six months of closed border crossings. The deal isn't quite sealed, but Pakistan is set to announce in a matter of days its decision to again allow onto...

KABUL, Afghanistan — NATO: 2 coalition service members and 4 civilian contractors killed in Kabul car bomb. Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Groups within the Obama administration are pushing to keep no more than a few thousand troops in Afghanistan after 2014, U.S. officials said, raising the prospect that the United States will be unable to keep its promise to fully train and equip Afghan security forces. As the debate over the size and scope of the post-2014 coalition mission nears its end, some in the administration are pressing for a force that could be as small as 2,500, arguing that a light touch would be the most...

KABUL — At least four NATO service members and six Afghan civilians, including school children, were killed when a suicide car bomber rammed a two-vehicle NATO convoy in the Afghan capital during Thursday morning rush hour, government officials said. It could not immediately confirmed how many international forces were killed or what their nationalities were. NATO officials here had no immediate comment, but Afghan police officials at the scene said they had removed the bodies of four Americans from one armored vehicle, which was...

The Taliban fighters who blew up a half-dozen U.S. Marine fighter jets on a sprawling NATO base last fall were able to walk easily onto the encampment because patrols of the perimeter had been scaled back and watchtowers left unmanned, according to senior military officials. After the attack, which resulted in the deaths of two Marines and the largest loss of allied materiel in the 11-year-long Afghan war, the top U.S. commander on the base did not order a formal investigation into the security lapses or sanction any personnel...

"This is a solemn moment for this House and our country," Gordon Brown, the British prime minister, said while addressing the House of Commons last week. A hush fell over the room and, according to a parliamentary sketch writer, the members "ceased to fidget, a truly rare thing in the Commons. " Brown then began to read a list of names: the 37 British soldiers who died in Afghanistan over the summer. Just a week before, a parallel scene had unfolded across the Channel: In Paris, a soldier wounded in Afghanistan this...

PRESIDENT OBAMA'S very public wavering over whether to stick with the strategy for Afghanistan that he adopted six months ago is producing some unusual spectacles. One is the awkward gap that has opened between the president and the military commander he appointed in June, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, who drew up a plan to implement the strategy -- only to learn he had been left out on a limb that might be sawn off. Another is the lobbying of the president by NATO allies who find themselves trying to keep the United States from abandoning...

MUNICH -- For European leftists, apparently the only thing worse than dead white men is live white men talking about death. So the Munich Conference on Security Policy -- a yearly meeting of European and American military officials and experts -- attracted a large contingent of pierced and angry protesters chanting unprintable slogans. After a few days at the conference listening to droning simultaneous translations and concentrated diplomatic blandness, I was fully prepared to join the protesters.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan -- A recent increase in Taliban attacks on a crucial NATO transportation route from Pakistan to Afghanistan could imperil efforts to bolster the flagging, seven-year U.S.-led military campaign in Afghanistan, U.S. and Pakistani officials say. Attacks on NATO supply lines have become a regular occurrence in parts of northwestern Pakistan, including the country's inhospitable tribal areas near the Afghan border. In the past two weeks, Taliban fighters have mounted at least six assaults on NATO...

LONDON — NATO intelligence analysts are turning to Twitter, YouTube and other social media channels to help determine potential targets for Libyan airstrikes — and to assess their success. Officials in NATO member states stress that "open source" intelligence picked up online is being used alongside a wide swath of information channels, ranging from unmanned aerial drones to television news channels. But just as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube have been credited with playing an important...

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — NATO has lowered the death toll in a roadside bombing in southern Afghanistan, saying 3 US service members killed instead of four. NATO spokesman Col. Thomas Collins initially told The Associated Press that 4 US service members were killed Tuesday when their convoy struck a roadside bomb in Kandahar province. Capt. Luca Carniel later told the AP the death toll has been revised to 3. THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information.

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 four U.S. service personnel have been killed in a roadside bombing in Afghanistan's volatile south. NATO spokesman Col. Thomas Collins said a powerful explosion ripped through a NATO convoy Tuesday in southern Kandahar province, the heartland of the insurgent Taliban. "The convoy struck an IED (improvised explosive devise) in Zhari district this afternoon," he told The Associated Press. He said there are a number of wounded as...

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...

BERLIN — President Barack Obama will visit Berlin next month for talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel on his first visit to the German capital since taking office, her spokesman said Friday. Obama will be in Berlin June 18-19, said Georg Streiter, a spokesman for Merkel. Details of the visit have yet to be worked out, but Merkel is looking forward to talks on "a wide spectrum of bilateral and global questions," he told reporters. Obama will be traveling in...

I have spent a great deal of time in Albania, dealing with military and political leaders there, and I take exception to Bruce P. Jackson's description of the so-called Adriatic-3 countries (Albania, Macedonia and Croatia) as being ready for NATO membership ["At NATO, No Time For Cold Feet," op-ed, Feb. 4]. Although Albania has made exceptional progress on military reform, it still has to reform its economy, judiciary and political process. NATO needs to nurture these three countries so that vital reforms can be accomplished without taxing...

Simon Gass's Nov. 28 op-ed,  "Dividends in Afghanistan," was full of news of "progress" in Afghanistan, but one wonders: progress toward what? Mr. Gass makes no mention of why NATO should engage in a decade-long nation-building exercise in a country that poses no threat to the West. He suggests that "turmoil" might result from our withdrawal and that this would be a threat. But why? His description of an Afghanistan without sufficient order (imposed with NATO troops and money)