Taliban: We were hacked
A Taliban spokesman says the group's phones and website were hacked, and text messages sent out saying their reclusive Afghan leader Mullah Mohammed Omar is dead - a claim the group has denied.
Omar is alive and the reports "are just propaganda against our leader and our mission," spokesman Zabihullah Nujahid told CNN.
NATO said it has no operational knowledge of Omar's condition or whereabouts. FULL POST
In the deadly valley of Kunar
Kunar, Afghanistan — Kunar province, on Afghanistan's eastern border, is as alluring to outsiders as it is unwelcoming.
It's a key transit route for militants from Pakistan. But it's also been the scene of some of the fiercest fighting for U.S. troops in the 10-year war.
In a tiny outpost, Pirtle King, troops test mortars against an insurgency that is rarely seen but frequently attacks from all sides. FULL POST
Nic Robertson: 'Taliban playing a long game'
How will U.S. troop withdrawal affect places like Kabul and Kandahar and what is the Taliban's long-term strategy?
CNN senior international correspondent talked with CNN's Anderson Cooper after President Obama's Afghanistan address:
COOPER: [In his address, Obama] said it's time "to focus on nation building here at home." ... Nation building is not officially what the U.S. says they're doing in Afghanistan, but really as part of this counterinsurgency strategy, nation building is what the United States has been doing in Afghanistan for years.
ROBERTSON: It has. If you look at where surges had the best successes, towns in Kandahar and some of the towns in Helmand, it's because there's been security and that's allowed to provide facilities for the mayor's office and for the provincial governor.
Things that they can't afford to do by themselves and get markets back up and running and provide security for street vendors to be able to come out to those markets. It's all these sorts of things that surge has provided for. FULL POST
Taliban back in town?
As President Obama is expected to announce in a speech Tuesday that 30,000 U.S. "surge" forces will be withdrawn from Afghanistan by the end of 2012, CNN's Nick Paton Walsh takes a look at one town in Afghanistan. A flag flies openly, the white banner of the Taliban. The message: we, the Taliban, are back in power here. Small Taliban fiefdoms are popping up while NATO's surge is at full strength, leaving many wondering what they'll do as NATO starts to leave?
Taliban and Pakistan reject speculation Mullah Omar is dead
The Afghan Taliban forcefully denied reports Monday that their leader is dead, dismissing them as "claims and rumors" from the "Kabul stooge regime's intelligence directorate."
Mullah Mohammed Omar "is alive and well and is leading the Mujahideen in all aspects while living safely with reliance on Allah," spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said.
His statement came after suggestions that Omar might have been killed recently.
Read the full story10 Pakistani troops killed in gun battle at naval base
At least 10 members of Pakistan's military were killed in a gun battle between security forces and Taliban militants at a naval base in the coastal city of Karachi, authorities said Monday.
The clashes raged for hours after attackers with guns and grenades stormed the compound Sunday night. By Monday afternoon, the base had "been cleared from the terrorists," a Pakistani navy spokesman said.
In addition to the 10 dead, at least 15 other Pakistani troops were wounded in the fighting, Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik said.
Read the full storyPakistani police foil suicide attack
Pakistani police foiled a suicide attack Tuesday in the southwestern city of Quetta when they killed five militants laden with explosives.
Police stopped the three women and two men after they pulled up to a checkpoint, said Daud Junejo, police chief in Quetta, the capital of restive Balochistan province. The five threatened police, telling them they were suicide bombers.
FULL POST
U.S. contradicts Taliban leader on bin Laden visits
Visits by outsiders to the Osama bin Laden compound were "few and far between," a U.S. official said.
The official, who was not authorized to speak on the record, disputed comments published in the Daily Beast website from a Taliban leader in Afghanistan who suggested Osama bin Laden was not isolated and did receive visitors at the Pakistan compound. The Daily Beast report said the senior Taliban leader claimed to have visited bin Laden in the Abbottabad compound two years ago.
While more could be learned about bin Laden's activities, including visitors, as U.S. agents go through the materials seized from the compound, but thus far U.S. intelligence suggests visits were "infrequent," according to the official.
Read the full storySuicide attacks in Pakistan kill 80; Taliban claim bin Laden revenge
The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility Friday for suicide attacks on a military training facility in the nation's northwest, saying they were in retaliation for the killing of terror leader Osama bin Laden.
The twin suicide bombings killed at least 80 people, nearly all of them military recruits who had just completed their training, said Bashir Ahmad Bilour, a senior provincial minister. About 140 others were injured.
"Pakistani and the U.S. forces should be ready for more attacks," said Ihsan Ullah Ihsan, a spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban, who accused the Pakistani military of telling the United States where bin Laden was.
Read the full storyCanadian missing in Afghanistan
Canada's government on Monday confirmed the disappearance of a Canadian citizen in Afghanistan, saying he traveled there as a tourist.
The Canadian government is also aware that the Taliban on Sunday issued a news release and video purported to be of the Canadian, said spokeswoman Lisa Monette of Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs.
CNN has not independently confirmed the authenticity of the video.
Christine Theodorou contributed to this report.
