Afghan withdrawal timeline "irrational": Taliban

KABUL: The Afghan Taliban described NATO’s plan to withdraw combat troops by the end of 2014 as “irrational”, reiterating on Sunday its demand for all foreign troops to leave immediately or risk more bloodshed.

In a five-point statement released in response to a NATO summit that wrapped up in Lisbon on Saturday, the Taliban said delaying the withdrawal of foreign troops would only lead to more “tragic events and battles”.

U.S. President Barack Obama, who is due to review his Afghanistan war strategy next month, has already committed to a gradual drawdown of U.S. troops from July 2011, his counterpart Hamid Karzai saying he wants Afghans in control by 2014.

That target was agreed by NATO leaders in Lisbon on Saturday, although some U.S. and NATO officials have said a spike in violence and problems in building up a capable Afghan army and police force to take

NATO reassures Afghanistan on security handover

LISBON: NATO said on Saturday it aimed to hand full control of security in Afghanistan to Afghan forces by the end of 2014 but promised not to abandon the country in its fight against the Taliban.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai wants the handover completed by that date, with a vastly reduced number of foreign troops staying in a training and support role, but some NATO officials fear a rise in violence could make it hard to meet the target.

NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen sought to reassure Karzai over the timetable on the second day of an alliance summit in Lisbon attended by the Afghan leader and 48 countries with troops in Afghanistan.

“Today marks the beginning of a new phase in our mission in Afghanistan. We will launch the process by which the Afghan government will take leadership for security throughout the country, district by district,”

Pakistan protests NATO airstrikes on its territory

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has criticized a pair of NATO airstrikes on its territory that killed over 50 militants, saying they were a violation of its sovereignty.

U.S. officials have said they have an agreement that allows aircraft to cross a few miles (kilometers) into Pakistani airspace if they are in hot pursuit of a target.

But Pakistan denied Monday such an agreement exists. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a press release Monday that the mandate of foreign troops in Afghanistan ends at the Afghan border.

Pakistan said that unless corrective measures are implemented, it will have to “consider response options.”

The airstrikes occurred Saturday in North Waziristan tribal area after militants attacked a small Afghan security post near the border.

NATO helicopters based in Afghanistan carried out at least two airstrikes in Pakistan that

2010 highest annual US deaths since Afghan war began

KABUL: The number of US soldiers killed in the Afghan war has reached its highest annual toll since the conflict began almost nine years ago, a news agency count based on an independent tally showed Wednesday.

By Wednesday 323 US soldiers had died, compared to 317 in 2009, according to a news agency count based on the icasualties.org website which keeps a running tally.

The total number of foreign troops killed in the war in 2009 was 521, compared with 490 so far this year, the tally shows.

Seven foreign troops killed in Afghan south

KABUL: Seven foreign troops from the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) were killed in two separate bomb attacks in southern Afghanistan on Monday, the alliance said.

Five troops were killed by a roadside bomb in one incident while two others died in a separate bomb attack, ISAF said in a statement. It gave no other details. AGENCIES

July is deadliest month for US forces in Afghanistan

KABUL: Six US soldiers were killed in bombing and insurgent attacks in Afghanistan”s volatile south, making July the deadliest month of the war for American forces, officers said Friday.

Three were killed on Thursday and three more on Friday, NATO”s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said. A US defense official in Washington, who spoke on condition of anonymity, confirmed the six soldiers were Americans.

The casualties brought the death toll for US soldiers in July to 66, an all-time high that surpassed the record toll of 60 for the previous month, according to the icasualties.org website.

US and NATO commanders have warned that an influx of foreign troops and a push against insurgents in the south would trigger a spike in casualties.

The mounting death toll for foreign troops has piled political pressure on the United States and its allies amid growing public doubts about the war, now in its ninth year.

Five of the six soldiers died in attacks using homemade bombs, or improvised explosive devices, ISAF said.

Homemade bombs, cheap and easy to make and plant, are the Taliban”s main weapon in the war in Afghanistan.

NATO and the United States have close to 150,000 troops in the country, with 30,000 deployed to the southern Taliban heartland in Helmand and Kandahar provinces.

3 UK men convicted over airliner bomb plot

LONDON: A jury on Thursday convicted three British Muslims of conspiring to murder hundreds of people as part of a plot to blow up passenger planes over the Atlantic.

Ibrahim Savant, 29, Arafat Waheed Khan, 29, and Waheed Zaman, 26 were found guilty at London”s Woolwich Crown Court after a three-month trial. They will be sentenced Monday and face life imprisonment.

Prosecutors say the men were part of a group that planned to detonate liquid explosive bombs hidden in soft drink bottles on aircraft bound for the United States and Canada in 2006, an attack that could have killed people on the scale of the Sept. 11 attacks.

The plot was broken up when suspects were scooped up in raids in London and the surrounding area in August 2006. The foiled attack grounded hundreds of flights and changed air travel for good, as airline authorities to put strict restrictions on the quantity of liquids passengers can carry in their luggage — limits that remain in place.

It has taken four years to bring all the accused to justice. This was the third trial of the three defendants. Two earlier juries failed to reach verdicts on charges of conspiracy to murder. They were acquitted at an earlier trial of knowing that airplanes were the plot”s target, but prosecutors said they had prepared to become suicide bombers and recorded “martyrdom” videos.

The men had argued that the videos were part of an elaborate publicity stunt.

Prosecutor Sue Hemming said the trio “were involved in a calculated and sophisticated plot to create a terrorist event of major proportions, working alongside others who were determined to bring down aircraft using homemade explosives, causing the maximum possible loss of life.”

“They were cleared in the previous trial of being aware of the ultimate targets of the plot, but we say that they were committed to the principle and practice of violent jihad to the point of targeting innocent people in an attempt to further their cause.”

Three other men, described as the group”s ringleaders, are serving long sentences for the plot.

Home Secretary Theresa May said the men had been convicted of “one of the most significant terrorist plots the UK has ever seen.”

Bomb kills NATO soldier in Afghanistan

KABUL: A Taliban-style bomb has killed another NATO soldier in Afghanistan, the military NATO said Friday.

The soldier, whose identity was not revealed, died after an attack with an improvised explosive device, or IED, in southern Afghanistan on Thursday, NATO”s International Security Assistance Force said.

The death brings to 342 the total number of foreign troops to die in Afghanistan so far this year, according to a tally. The total last year was 520.

Taliban raid foreign base in Jalalabad

JALALABAD: Afghan Taliban insurgents raided a base for foreign troops in Jalalabad on Wednesday, officials said, but there were no immediate reports of casualties.

Local officials and those for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said the raid was still goingon at the base in the northeast of the country near the Pakistan border.

Militants kill NATO soldier in Afghanistan

KABUL: Militants killed a NATO soldier in eastern Afghanistan, the alliance said Saturday, as the death toll for foreign troops in the country mounted.

The latest death takes to 274 the number of foreign soldiers killed in Afghanistan this year, according to a tally.

“An ISAF service member died following an insurgent attack” on Friday, NATO said in a statement, referring to its International Security Assistance Force.

ISAF had announced on Friday the deaths of four other NATO soldiers in Afghanistan”s south.

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