Taliban, Wars | featured news

CAMP LEATHERNECK, Afghanistan (Reuters) - The biggest military operation of U.S.

After explosions and gun battles rock Kabul for three hours, President Karzai says order is restored. The attack is launched on the day that confirmed Cabinet members are sworn in.

KABUL — Taliban militants struck in the heart of the Afghan capital today, launching suicide attacks on key government targets in a clear sign the insurgents plan to escalate their fight as the U.S. and its allies ramp up a campaign to end the war.

The Pakistani Taliban claims they used a turncoat CIA operative for the suicide bombing that killed seven CIA employees in Afghanistan as revenge for a militant leader's death.

The year's tally was 319, compared with 155 in 2008, due mostly to the crude but ever larger and deadlier roadside bombs built by the Taliban.

The Afghan Taliban said on Friday that they had issued a new video tape of a U.S. soldier who was captured this summer, and added that in it he asks his government to take part in a prisoner exchange deal.

The top commander in Afghanistan says he could make the case in a year that the insurgency has lost momentum, though the effort will be costly and require 'steadfast commitment.'

Arguing that the next 18 months will be decisive, the top commander in Afghanistan said today that he believes the Taliban could be "rolled back."

Pakistani forces are zeroing in on two major Taliban bases in South Waziristan region as their offensive pushes deeper into militant bastion on the Afghan border, the military said on Sunday.

Ground troops attack militant positions in South Waziristan, a response to a wave of violence that extremists launched in the past two weeks.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistani troops launched a long-awaited ground offensive into the Taliban and Al Qaeda stronghold of South Waziristan today, beginning what experts say will be the country's most challenging chapter yet in the ongoing war on terror.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The commander of U.S.

Pakistan said Tuesday it was racing to help refugees fleeing a military offensive against the Taliban in its northwest - an exodus of some 1.5 million with a speed and size the U.N. said could rival the displacement caused by Rwanda's genocide.