Afghanistan

FORT LEAVENWORTH, KAN. - The attorney for the Army staff sergeant suspected of killing 16 Afghan civilians yesterday questioned the quality of the evidence against his client and said he planned to travel to Afghanistan to gather his own. John Henry Browne said he met with Robert Bales for 11 hours over two days at Fort Leavenworth, where his client is being held. He added that there was still a lot he didn't know about the March 11 shootings. "I don't know about the evidence in this case.

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By Daniel L. Davis There has been a great deal of discussion in recent weeks regarding the appropriate size of the post-2014 U.S. military footprint in Afghanistan. Many well-known pundits have argued the United States should keep as many as 15,000 troops on the ground. The rationale cited is that we must have a "robust presence" to accomplish American strategic objectives. They argue that going with a force smaller than that, or taking the so-called zero-option of complete withdrawal, must be resisted to avoid defeat.

A Marine from Hawley, in Wayne County in northeastern Pennsylvania, died Sunday in Afghanistan, the Defense Department said yesterday. Pfc. Serge Kropov, 21, died in Helmand province of a "nonhostile incident" that is under investigation, the department said. He was assigned to Marine Aircraft Group 16, Third Marine Aircraft Wing, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Marine Corps Air Station in Miramar, Calif.

Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze said the Soviet Union has suspended the withdrawal of its troops from Afghanistan because of persistent violations of a U.N.-negotiated agreement. "Let's wait and see," Shevardnadze told reporters at the United Nations yesterday. "It is necessary to stop the violations that take place. It is the most important thing. " In another development, 35 people were killed and more than 150 injured when a rocket landed in a central square in Kabul today during a rebel missile attack on the Afghan capital, the Soviet news agency Tass reported.

President Obama should take full advantage of the opportunity provided by the death of terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden to dramatically reshape U.S. policy related to Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India. For a decade, this country has expended an inordinate amount of its resources, not to mention the more than 1,500 soldiers killed, to fight a war in Afghanistan that never promised to yield comparable strategic results. The cost was swallowed in the mistaken belief that a "war on terror" could be won if a decisive blow were struck on one front.

A top Foreign Ministry spokesman today said the Soviet Union has suspended its troop withdrawal from Afghanistan because of heavy attacks by rebels and hinted the pullout might not be completed by a Feb. 15 deadline. "The Soviet troops are being withdrawn due to the goodwill of the Soviet government," First Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Bessmertnykh told a news conference. "They will be withdrawn in honorable conditions. " The current atmosphere of heavy attacks by insurgents with arms supplied by the United States, Pakistan and other countries "does not provide conditions for such a withdrawal of Soviet troops," Bessmertnykh said.

IJUST FLEW from Philadelphia to Columbia, S.C., for my 18-year-old son's orientation at University of South Carolina for his fall start of college studies. Sitting next to me on the small plane was an even younger young man - a 17-year-old on his way to a different orientation: 10 weeks of Army basic training at Fort Jackson, S.C. The young man, like an overgrown puppy strapped in beside me, eagerly twitched with anticipation. This was only his second airplane ride. (The first came earlier in the day from his home in Minnesota to Philadelphia.)

Soviet ground forces have returned to the northern Afghan city of Kunduz after pulling out two weeks ago, the Washington Post reported today. The maneuver appears to reflect conflict between the Soviet government and army over how to execute the withdrawl of its troops from Afghanistan, western diplomats said today. The move was the first instance of Soviet troops returning to a city already abandoned since the overall withdrawal began May 15. U.S. officials in Washington confirmed the Soviet troop move but said it did not appear to break the Geneva accord on the pullout.

Sylvester Stallone says that "Rambo" will next appear in Afghanistan on a rescue mission to free his former commanding officer from his Communist captors. The second "Rambo" movie ended with John Rambo walking bare-chested across Thailand. Next, he will lead the Mujahedeen tribesmen into battle on horseback. Stallone, currently working on "Over the Top," said he will do the new "Rambo" movie in the fall for release next July 4. He said he is dubbing this film " 'The Charge of the Light Brigade' across the plains of Afghanistan into the mouth of pain.

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - A roadside bomb struck a U.S. convoy in southern Afghanistan on Tuesday, killing three American troops, while a motorcycle bomb in a crowded village market killed at least three Afghan civilians, officials said. A NATO spokesman, Col. Thomas Collins, said the blast hit the American convoy in the Zhari district of Kandahar province, the spiritual heartland of the Taliban and one of the most volatile regions in Afghanistan. Collins originally said four U.S. troops were killed, but Capt.

By Rashid Khattak While the media have understandably been focused on parliamentary elections in Pakistan in recent weeks, including the campaign violence in the run-up to Saturday's vote, the bigger threat to long-term stability in the region may be the ongoing border skirmishes between that country and Afghanistan. "Dozens of people are killed and injured every day in bomb blasts and attacks on election rallies and public meetings in Pakistan. It is the first priority of media to cover these incidents," said Riaz Khan, an Islamabad-based journalist.

Iran denies killing Afghans KABUL, Afghanistan - Iranian border guards killed 10 Afghan migrants and wounded eight others when hundreds tried to illegally cross into Iran in search of work, Afghanistan's Interior Ministry said Sunday. Iran denied that. Details of the incident Friday in Afghanistan's northwestern Farah province have been sketchy and often contradictory. An Interior Ministry statement said 300 Afghan laborers tried to cross into Iran illegally, looking for work. Iranian border guards opened fire, killing 10, it said.

KABUL, Afghanistan - Senior American and Afghan officials held talks Saturday to try to iron out the details of a pact signed a year ago that defines the future of the U.S. commitment to Afghanistan. The Strategic Partnership Agreement outlines a set of principles and general commitments for relations between Washington and Kabul after 2014, when foreign combat troops are to withdraw from Afghanistan. But there is lingering uncertainty over whether either party will be willing or able to stick to the provisions of the pact, which includes loopholes for both nations.

WORCESTER, Mass. - The body of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev was entombed in an unknown gravesite yesterday after police said an anonymous person stepped forward to help arrange the secret burial. The burial ended a weeklong search for a place willing to take Tsarnaev's body out of Worcester, where his remains had been stored at a funeral home amid protests. In that time, the cities where Tsarnaev lived and died and his mother's country all refused the remains. Amid the frustration, Worcester's police chief urged an end to the quandary.

PROMINENT AREA businessman Marty Judge has been the driving force behind a unique Army-Navy indoor football game for veterans that will be played June 22 after the Soul's game at the Wells Fargo Center. The purpose of the game is to bring attention to the difficulties members of the armed services have trying to re-enter the workforce. Judge also is a part owner of the Soul. Former Navy quarterback Ricky Dobbs already has promised his support. There will be tryouts leading up to the game, including this Saturday at the Wells Fargo Center.

In the unforgiving Afghan landscape, we have learned that you can't buy a warlord. You can only rent one. We owe this education to our man in Kabul, President Hamid Karzai. For more than a decade, it has been confirmed, U.S. dollars packed into suitcases, backpacks, and plastic shopping bags have been delivered every month or so to Karzai's office. In the theory of imperialism, we would venture into the Hindu Kush and reform its ways. It would, instead, be the other way around.

KABUL, Afghanistan - Seven U.S. service members were killed Saturday in one of the deadliest days for Americans in Afghanistan in recent months and the latest of attacks against international troops since the Taliban announced the start of its spring offensive. The U.S.-led coalition reported that five international troops were killed by a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan, and a coalition spokesman, Capt. Luca Carniel, confirmed that all five were American. The coalition did not disclose the location of the roadside bombing.

CHALDOVAR, Kyrgyzstan - An American military refueling plane carrying three crew members crashed Friday in the rugged mountains of Kyrgyzstan, the Central Asian nation where the United States operates an air base key to the war in Afghanistan. There was no immediate word on the fate of the KC-135 crew. Officials at the U.S. base said they had no information yet on the cause of the crash. The plane crashed in the afternoon near Chaldovar, a village about 100 miles west of the U.S. Transit Center at Manas base, which is outside the Kyrgyz capital of Bishkek.

KABUL, Afghanistan - An Afghan border policeman was killed in an exchange of fire with Pakistani troops along the country's contested eastern border, an Afghan security official said Thursday, in an incident that threatens to further inflame tensions. Pakistani forces fired artillery rounds late Wednesday at Afghan border police in the Goshta district of Nangarhar province, according to Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqi. In an ensuing five-hour firefight, one border policeman was killed, he said.