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Roadside bomb in Afghanistan kills 7, wounds 17
A roadside bomb hit a bus in Afghanistan's Ghazni province Tuesday, killing seven people and wounding 17 others, a provincial official said.
Safiullah Ibrahimi, a spokesman for the governor of eastern Ghazni province, said insurgents planted the bomb.
All of the casualties were men, he said. No women or children were hurt.
Afghan and NATO troops repel Taliban attack
NATO and Afghan forces fought back Taliban attackers who launched an assault Monday on a U.S. base in eastern Afghanistan, near the border with Pakistan.
The insurgents detonated explosives and then began firing guns in an area where NATO supply trucks were parked in Nangarhar province, said Ahmed Zia Abdulzai, a spokesman for the province's governor.
Army sergeant says Afghan killing spree was 'act of cowardice'
The Army sergeant who admitted to gunning down 16 civilians in a 2012 rampage through two villages near his outpost in southern Afghanistan reportedly apologized Thursday, describing the massacre as an "act of cowardice."
Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales pleaded guilty in June to more than 30 criminal charges, including 16 premeditated murder counts.
The plea spares the 39-year-old Bales the prospect of a death sentence in the killings. He now faces life in prison, but a jury of four officers and two enlisted personnel will decide whether he will have a chance at parole.
FULL STORYAfghan forces take over security
[Updated at 10:06 a.m. ET] Could the end of the war in Afghanistan be in sight? A flash of hope flickered at the end of the tunnel Tuesday.
Afghan forces formally took over security responsibilities for their violence-plagued country from NATO-led troops on Tuesday, marking a key transition in the long and costly war.
President Hamid Karzai also announced that a government group dedicated to Afghan peace and reconciliation will go to the Gulf state of Qatar and participate in talks with the Taliban militant group - long the adversary of the Afghan and coalition soldiers trying to keep order in the nation.
FULL STORY10 kids, 2 soldiers killed in Afghan suicide bombing
Ten schoolchildren and two soldiers with NATO's International Security Assistance Force were killed Monday in a bombing in Afghanistan, officials said.
A police officer was also killed when a suicide bomber attacked a bazaar in Afghanistan's eastern Paktia province, the Afghan Interior Ministry said.
The assailant, who was on a motorbike, detonated a device in the main bazaar of the Samkanai district, Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi said.
At least 16 others were wounded, Sediqqi said.
FULL STORYTaliban capture 8 Turks in Afghanistan
Taliban insurgents seized eight Turkish nationals from a transport helicopter after it was forced to make an emergency landing early Monday in eastern Afghanistan, authorities said.
FULL STORYTwo killed in Afghanistan helicopter crash
Two coalition service members died following a helicopter crash in eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday, NATO's International Security Assistance Force said.
ISAF didn't release the service members' nationalities or the precise location of the crash.
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Kerry makes unannounced Afghanistan visit
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry made a previously unannounced stop in Afghanistan for a meeting with Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Monday, the day that a U.S.-run prison that bred tension between the nations was handed over to the Afghans.
Kerry landed in Kabul on Monday afternoon and was expected to meet with Karzai at the presidential palace later in the day.
Kerry's visit comes on the day that the United States handed over control of a U.S.-run prison near Bagram Air Base to Afghan authorities. The detention facility was a sticking point between U.S. and Afghan officials.
The visit also comes amid other tensions between Karzai and the NATO-led coalition forces that escalated after a bomb blast in Kabul this month that killed nine people. Karzai said afterward that there are "ongoing daily talks between the Taliban, Americans and foreigners in Europe and in the Gulf states."
FULL STORYU.S. hands over prison to Afghans
The United States on Monday handed over control of a U.S.-run prison near Bagram Air Base to Afghan authorities.
The handover of control of the detention center in Parwan fulfills an agreement between Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
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U.S. commander: Karzai comments increase risk
The commander of the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan is warning his top commanders of new risks of attacks due to rising tensions between NATO forces and the Afghan President Hamid Karzai (pictured), an ISAF official told CNN Thursday.
The personal e-mail that Gen. Joseph Dunford sent Wednesday is not a formal threat advisory, said the official, who did not want to be identified.
FULL STORY5 dead in Afghanistan helicopter crash
Five coalition service members died after a helicopter crash in southern Afghanistan on Monday, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force said.
The chopper went down in the Daman district of southern Kandahar during a rain storm, said Jawid Faisal, a government spokesman for the province.
There was no enemy activity in the area at the time of the incident, ISAF said. It has not released the nationalities of the service members.
FULL STORY2 Americans among those killed in Afghan attack
[Updated at 11:38 a.m. ET] An update on the casualties: Two American service members and two Afghan army personnel were killed in Monday's attack in eastern Afghanistan by a gunman wearing an Afghan National Security Forces uniform, ISAF and Afghan officials said.
At least 10 Americans were wounded as well, a U.S. military official told CNN.
[Posted at 7:37 a.m. ET] Several NATO and Afghan service members were killed Monday when an assailant wearing an Afghan service uniform opened fire on the group, NATO said.
The attack happened late Monday morning in eastern Afghanistan, said Maj. Adam Wojack, a spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force.
The incident appeared to be the latest so-called "green-on-blue" attack, or strike against coalition members by people dressed in police or army uniforms. Assailants conducting similar subterfuge killed dozens of coalition troops in 2012.
ISAF blasts claim of U.S., Taliban collusion
Afghan President Hamid Karzai's contention that the United States was colluding with the Taliban is "categorically false," the commander for the NATO-led forces in the country said Monday.
"We have fought too hard over the past 12 years. We have shed too much blood over the past 12 years. We have done too much to help the Afghan Security Forces grow over the last 12 years to ever think that violence or instability would be to our advantage," said Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford, the commander of the International Security Assistance Force.
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Karzai: Blast shows Taliban serving 'foreigners'
Afghan President Hamid Karzai took aim at both the Taliban and the United States on Sunday in remarks likely to sour his already strained relations with Washington during a visit by U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel.
A deadly blast Saturday in the Afghan capital, Karzai said, showed that the "Taliban are serving the foreigners and are not against the foreigner."
The Taliban claimed responsibility for Saturday's attack at the Afghan Ministry of Defense in Kabul, which killed at least nine people and wounded 14 others. A Taliban spokesman expressed pleasure with Hagel's proximity at the time, calling the attack "a message to him."
NATO's International Security Assistance Force rejected suggestions that the Taliban even knew of Hagel's trip when they planned the operation.
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Afghan police officer hugs suicide bomber
A policeman sacrificed his life for the sake of others, embracing a suicide bomber in southeast Afghanistan on Saturday morning to dull the blast as it detonated, eyewitnesses said.
The bomb killed the officer, Murad Khan, and eight minors between the ages of 7 and 17.
FULL STORYBlast rocks Kabul as Hagel speaks
An explosion rocked Kabul Saturday during a press briefing in Afghanistan by newly appointed U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, according to a CNN correspondent present. Those attending the briefing were moved to a safer location.
The sound of other explosions could be heard a short time before the blast.
Three eye witnesses said there was an explosion near the Afghan defense ministry, which is about half a mile from the headquarters of the International Security Assistance Force.
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Defense Secretary Hagel in Afghanistan
The first Vietnam veteran to be U.S. defense secretary is spending his first overseas trip on the job thanking soldiers and Marines.
At about 11 a.m. ET Friday, Chuck Hagel touched down in Kabul, Afghanistan. On the plane taking him there, he told reporters that the main reason for going was to thank the troops.
FULL STORYMattis wants 13K troops staying in Afghanistan
The top U.S. commander for the Afghanistan-Pakistan region has recommended to President Obama that 13,600 American troops stay in Afghanistan after 2014, a number that is potentially higher than what the administration wants to leave in the country.
At a NATO meeting in February, then-Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta said up to 12,000 troops could stay behind, but not all of those would be American troops necessarily. But Gen. James Mattis, head of the U.S. Central Command, revealed the new recommendation to the Senate Armed Service Committee on Tuesday at a hearing.
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Ex-Kabul Bank chiefs slapped with prison time
Two former Kabul Bank executives accused in a scheme that siphoned hundreds of millions of dollars now face years in prison and massive fines.
Investigators say the scheme cheated ordinary people's savings out of Kabul Bank in a case of "fraudulent lending and embezzlement."
Former Chief Executive Officer Khalilullah Ferozi was sentenced to five years and ordered to pay $530 million to a recovery fund to help the fraud victims, prosecutor Nasrrullah Hemad said.
The scandal that engulfed Kabul Bank has severely damaged the reputation of the Western approach to banking that it embodied in Afghanistan, one of the least developed countries in the world.
FULL STORYNATO sorry for fatally shooting 2 Afghan boys
NATO apologized Saturday after it said its troops mistook two Afghan boys for insurgents and shot them dead late last month.
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