Taliban, Wars | featured news

Leon Panetta cites governance problems, drug trafficking and the Taliban insurgency. Progress is "slower than I think anyone anticipated," he says.

KANDAHAR (Reuters) - The signature weapon of the Iraq war has established itself as the Taliban's weapon of choice in Afghanistan as well, where roadside bombs have proven to be rudimentary and cheap -- but deadly as ever.

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates told troops in southern Afghanistan on Tuesday they would soon be part of a "decisive phase" in the war -- an operation to impose control over the Taliban heartland of Kandahar province.

U.S. Marines and Afghan soldiers advanced through poppy fields of Marjah on Saturday under withering gunfire from Taliban fighters shooting from mudbrick homes and compounds where families huddled in terror.

A son of the leader of a major Taliban faction attacking Western forces in Afghanistan has been killed in a missile strike by a U.S. drone in Pakistan, security officials said on Friday.

The Taliban’s familiar display of haphazard and ineffective shooting has been punctuated by the work of what would seem to be several well-trained marksmen.

Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar captured in Pakistan in secret raid by U.S., Pakistani intelligence forces.

A nine-hour journey covering one mile reveals the danger and complexity of U.S. Marines' effort to wrest control of Marjah from the Taliban in Afghanistan.

U.S. Marines and Taliban insurgents exchanged gunfire Thursday on the outskirts of Marjah, a southern militant stronghold where American and Afghan forces are expected to launch a major attack in the coming days.

U.S. Army soldiers launched a major operation Tuesday in support of a planned U.S.-Afghan attack on the largest Taliban-controlled town in southern Afghanistan.