Afghanistan withdrawal could imperil US-India relations, McCain warns
If the United States leaves Afghanistan prematurely,
the subsequent destabilization in the region will impose a "huge bearing" on relations between the United States and India, Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, the
top Republican on military matters, warned Friday.
"Afghanistan has become a major source of tension between the United States and India, for the primary reason that India does not believe we will stay until the job is done," McCain said at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
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Second deadly mosque attack in Pakistan
Authorities in Pakistan are reporting a
second deadly mosque attack Friday in the country's volatile northwestern
region, a strike that killed four people and injured 18 others.
This follows a fatal blast that killed at least 67 people and wounded more than 80 others in a suicide attack that targeted anti-Taliban members at another mosque in the northwest, said government official Khalid Umarzai.
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Five dead in Afghan suicide attack
At least five people died and 35 others were wounded Friday when a suicide bomber struck a crowded marketplace in northern Afghanistan, a government official told CNN.
The incident took place in Faryab province and the target of the attack was the head of the provincial council, who was standing in front of the shop he owns, according to Abdul Satar Barez, deputy to Faryab's governor.
The bomber approached the provincial council official with a petition when he blew himself up. The official was injured and the rest of the dead and injured were civilians.
Friday is the traditional shopping day in the villages of Faryab.
Inside a firefight on a mountain
Sixty troops from the 101st Airborne suddenly found themselves surrounded by Taliban in the middle of the night at Combat Outpost Marga, a dusty patch of dirt in the heartland of the insurgency in eastern Afghanistan. With Taliban rockets, mortars and grenades slamming into the base, the men used every weapon they had. At the same time, six of the soldiers were at a lone observation post on top of a steep mountain just outside the gate. Thirty more Taliban crept up the mountain and overran them. The soldiers survived by shooting, running and tumbling down the mountain as they ran out of ammo. The deeply shaken soldiers give their first hand account of this extraordinary tale of war and survival ... and walk the ground with CNN's Barbara Starr just a couple of days after the fight.
NATO service members killed in Afghanistan
Three service members with the International Security Assistance Force died Friday in separate attacks, NATO officials said.
Two died in southern Afghanistan - one in an insurgent attack; the other in a roadside bombing; the force said. The third died in a roadside bombing in eastern Afghanistan.
In keeping with its policy, the force did not release the soldiers' names or nationalities.
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From Fort Hood shooting to war zone and finally home
WASHINGTON (CNN) - When the members of the 467th Combat Stress Control Detachment from Madison, Wisconsin, left for Afghanistan about a year ago, the war had never been more violent. But the unit had already been through the hell of gunfire and killing.
The 467th was inside the building at Ft. Hood, Texas, on November 5, 2009, when a gunman opened fire, methodically killing 13 people and injuring dozens more. Soon after, they shipped to the warzone. FULL POST
