Warrant Adam Taylor, 2 Combat Engineer Regiment (2CER) 32 Troop Commander, communicates with a CH147 Chinook helicopter during an air insertion. Canada's last combat troops in Afghanistan are to begin withdrawing from "outside the wire" between "the middle and end of June" and all of them will be back at Kandahar Airfield or in Canada "by the end of July," says their commander, Lt.-Col. Henri-Michel St-Louis. Photograph by: File, DNDScorched-Earth Tactic In Afghanistan Loses Hearts And Minds In Battle With Taliban -- The Australian
US troops are employing a controversial new tactic of blowing up houses and in some cases razing Afghan villages they believe have been mined by the Taliban.
The tactic, which has evolved over the past few months, has provoked unease among human rights groups and even among some soldiers carrying out the destruction but is understood to have been approved by General David Petraeus, the overall Nato commander, in December - even though it appears at odds with rules of engagement he outlined last year that urged his troops to "treat the Afghan people and their property with respect".
Read more ....
More News On Afghanistan
Non-combatants bear brunt of Afghan war as 38 civilians killed last week -- People's Daily
NATO: 2 Taliban leaders killed in east Afghanistan -- Yahoo News/AP
Military Says 14 Taliban Killed In Afghanistan -- Radio Free Europe
300 Militants Killed in E Afghanistan Last Year -- Tolo News
NATO, Afghan forces detain over 100 Taliban local leaders in one month: NATO -- People's Daily
Afghanistan's spy agency thwarts major terror plot in Kandahar city -- Canadian Press
265 Pakistanis held in jails across Afghanistan: Report -- Express Tribune
Afghan infants fed pure opium -- CNN
Afghan Supreme Court to rule on parliament opening -- Yahoo News/Reuters
Karzai accepts lawmakers' plan to end standoff -- CNN
Afghans Advance Talks on Seating Legislators -- Wall Street Journal
Uncertainty lingers over Afghan parliament -- Yahoo News/AFP
Taliban order strict phone blackout in Afghan north -- Reuters
In Afghanistan, armed with an iPhone -- Global Post
Canadian troops to begin withdrawing from Afghan combat in June: Commander -- Montreal Gazette/Post Media News
The mean 'Helmand' streets where British troops are trained by Afghan villagers... in NORFOLK -- The Daily Mail
British soldiers train in mock Afghan village -- AP
How Short-Term Thinking is Causing Long-Term Failure in Afghanistan -- Joshua Foust, The Atlantic