Afghanistan

WASHINGTON – Defense Secretary Robert Gates will consider sending some 3,000 Marines to Afghanistan to thwart any spring offensive by Taliban militants, the Pentagon said on Wednesday.

KABUL – A soldier from the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) was killed and another was wounded on Wednesday in a mine blast in southern Afghanistan, a military statement said.

KABUL (Reuters) – A former senior Taliban commander has been appointed government district chief of the fiefdom he once controlled as an insurgent leader, Afghan officials confirmed on Tuesday.

KABUL, Afghanistan – A roadside bomb killed two soldiers from the U.S.-led coalition in eastern Afghanistan, and a suicide bomber on a motorcycle attacked a border police patrol in the south, killing a policeman, officials said.Clashes and another roadside bomb left nine people dead elsewhere.

WASHINGTON — As the Bush administration struggles for a way to close the military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, a similar effort to scale down a larger and more secretive American detention center in Afghanistan has been troubled by political, legal and security problems, officials say.

THE CANADIAN PRESS KANDAHAR, Afghanistan – A pair of Canadian soldiers returning to establish camp for the night part way through an operation in southern Afghanistan were killed Sunday evening in a vehicle roll-over.

KABUL – Afghanistan’s Islamic council has told President Hamid Karzai to stop foreign aid groups from converting locals to Christianity and also demanded the reintroduction of public executions.

Most girls dream about about falling in love, getting married in a beautiful dress, and having a family. But for thousands of young Afghan girls, and millions more across Asia and Africa, marriage often comes before they are old enough for such dreams — and ends in nightmare.

TEHRAN (FNA) Afghanistan’s government called Thursday on Iran to delay its decision to expel more than a million Afghan refugees living there without proper documents.

A suicide bomber has killed six police and an Indian engineer in southeastern Afghanistan, a provincial official says.