Word: afghan
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...while I was embedded with U.S. troops in southern Afghanistan, my humvee convoy stopped in a small village. It was just the moment that the gunner on my vehicle had been waiting for. His grandmother back home in Kentucky had sent him a package of hard candies "for the Afghan children," and he carried them on patrol. As the curious village children crept closer to the parked humvees, he started tossing out the treats. The children were delighted and responded by running closer, cheering, waving and flashing thumbs-up signs. It was a charming moment. The children were happy...
...Zabul province noted, is to remember why foreign troops and internationals are in Afghanistan. "Winning hearts and minds," that catchphrase of counterinsurgency, can be easily misunderstood. The aim of Western soldiers in Afghanistan is not to win affection for themselves or their armies but to build support for the Afghan government...
...Most likely, the local Taliban shadow governor promulgated the rumors of a desecrated Koran. Still, that incident as well as the Jalalabad one underscore the U.S.'s failure to understand the local environment, much of it attributable to a self-centered approach to gathering and disseminating intelligence throughout the Afghan theater. A new report titled "Fixing Intel: A Blueprint for Making Intelligence Relevant in Afghanistan," written by the top U.S. military intelligence commander there, slams intelligence failures (even before a Jordanian double agent detonated his suicide vest inside a CIA facility, killing eight personnel). The report says that intelligence-gathering...
...Explosions and heavy gunfire rattled the city for several hours as Afghan security forces battled back, eventually cornering the last of the insurgents in an office building. Six hours later, the streets were quiet again. Karzai told reporters that security forces had regained control of the city and were searching for any militants who might still be hiding. Authorities said at least five people - three security forces and two civilians - were killed and 71 people were wounded. The U.S. embassy in Kabul immediately condemned the attack and pledged that the U.S. would "continue to stand with the Afghan people...
...Kabul has been battered by bomb blasts over the last several months - including an Oct. 28 attack on a U.N. guesthouse that left 11 people dead - but Monday's attack represented a sharp escalation in the violence. Farida Nekzad, an Afghan journalist based in Kabul, told TIME that the insurgents targeted places frequented by foreign diplomats and ordinary civilians alike. Authorities said several insurgents stormed the Ferushgah shopping center and ordered people to get out before firing shots from the roof and then setting the building ablaze. Other militants reportedly struck a movie theater, a hotel popular with Westerners...