March 2010
23 posts
1 tag
Army food: the battle of the bulge →
The Times Tom Coghlan and Jerome Starkey in Kabul
It was visions of Ambrosia that sustained the Spartans, while GIs in the Vietnam War imagined the culinary and sensual pleasures of Saigon. For the troops fighting in the Helmand desert, fantasies tend to focus on chilled milkshakes and Double Whoppers served up on a neon-lit strip of Kandahar airbase known as “The Boardwalk”.
Or they did until...
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Burgers go way of booze as US general Stanley... →
The Times Jerome Starkey in Kabul
First he banned booze in his Kabul headquarters. Now the notoriously austere commander of US and Nato forces has a new target in his war on terror: ice cream and fast food.
General Stanley McChrystal, the former commander of Special Forces in Iraq, who runs eight miles a day, eats one meal and sleeps for only four hours a night, has given orders to close the...
Burgers take hit as general declares war on fast... →
FIRST he banned booze in his Kabul headquarters. Now, the notoriously austere commander of US and Nato forces has got a new target in his war on terror – ice cream and fast food.
2 tags
Nato commanders to put Afghan troops in front line... →
The Times Tom Coghlan, Jerome Starkey in Kabul and Deborah Haynes
Nato commanders are to change their tactics in the battle for Kandahar, putting Afghan forces at the forefront of the operation to drive the Taleban from their spiritual heartland.
Operation Omid — the Pashto word for hope — is the next stage of a year-long campaign to retake southern Afghanistan. It will target the southern city...
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President Obama lands in Kabul for surprise... →
The Times Jerome Starkey in Kabul and Tim Reid in Washington
Barack Obama made a surprise visit to Afghanistan last night, delivering a blunt warning to President Karzai to crack down on corruption before a new offensive against the Taleban.
Mr Obama flew into the main American airbase at Bagram at 7.25pm local time under the cover of darkness.
He was met by General Stanley McChrystal, the...
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Taleban seize Helmand town after days of fierce... →
The Scotsman By Jerome Starkey in Kabul
A VILLAGE in northern Helmand has been captured by the Taleban after more than three days of heavy fighting, Afghan and Nato officials have told The Scotsman.
More than 50 Afghan policemen were forced to abandon Shah Karez, around nine miles (15km) east of Musa Qala, after five of their comrades were killed and 16 others injured in co-ordinated Taleban...
Taleban seize Shah Karez, home of the... →
The Taleban have seized the home village of the British-backed Governor of Musa Qala after several days of fighting, Afghan and Nato officials in Helmand told The Times.
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U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan are committing... →
Nieman Watchdog By Jerome Starkey in Kabul
“Tied up, gagged and killed” was how NATO described the “gruesome discovery” of three women’s bodies during a night raid in eastern Afghanistan in which several alleged militants were shot dead on Feb. 12.
Hours later they revised the number of women “bound and gagged” to two and announced an enquiry. For more than a month they said nothing...
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Caretaker of Kabul's British cemetery Rahimullah... →
The Times Jerome Starkey, in Kabul
To a shopkeeper with a few sheep in a part of Kabul, a well-watered patch of grass with high walls to fend off the urban sprawl was prime city-centre grazing. It didn’t matter to Rahimullah that it was an old British cemetery.
It was a few years after Russian troops had invaded and the previous caretaker had died. Most of the foreign diplomats had fled and the...
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General Stanley McChrystal reins in special forces... →
The Times Jerome Starkey in Kabul and Michael Evans, Pentagon Correspondent, Washington
The commander of US and Nato troops in Afghanistan has issued new rules to rein in special forces after a spate of botched operations left scores of civilians dead.
Days after an investigation by The Times revealed that two pregnant women and a teenage girl were killed in a night raid by American special...
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UN report criticises covert troops who committed... →
The Times Jerome Starkey in Kabul
Covert troops who killed two pregnant women and a teenage girl in eastern Afghanistan went on to inflict “cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment” on the survivors of a botched night raid, a report by the UN said.
The family of the victims in Paktiya province have accused Nato of trying to cover up the atrocity after an investigation by The Timesrevealed that...
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Survivors of family killed in Afghanistan raid... →
The Times Jerome Starkey in Khataba
A family whose members were killed in a botched night raid in eastern Afghanistan have rejected “blood money” from the Government and vowed to carry out suicide attacks unless the perpetrators are brought to justice.
Two pregnant women, a teenage girl, a policeman and his brother were shot dead on February 12 by unidentified gunmen. Eight men were arrested in...
3 tags
Nato ‘covered up’ botched night raid in... →
The Times Jerome Starkey in Khataba
A night raid carried out by US and Afghan gunmen led to the deaths of two pregnant women, a teenage girl and two local officials in an atrocity which Nato then tried to cover up, survivors have told The Times.
The operation on Friday, February 12, was a botched pre-dawn assault on a policeman’s home a few miles outside Gardez, the capital of Paktia province,...
Nato accused of cover up over killing of pregnant... →
THE survivors of a night raid in eastern Afghanistan in which five people, including two pregnant women, died have accused Nato of trying to cover up the atrocity.
US Defence Secretary Robert Gates makes surprise... →
Robert Gates, the US Defence Secretary, made a surprise visit to Afghanistan yesterday and cautioned against over optimism for the new military surge there, as a report emerged detailing low morale…
President Karzai pays 'blood money' over children... →
President Karzai has paid “blood money” to the families of nine children killed in a brutal night raid after Nato admitted that they were gunned down by mistake.
79 dead after rival Afghanistan insurgent groups... →
Bloody clashes between competing factions of Afghanistan’s insurgency left up to 79 people dead, officials said today, including 19 civilians in a lawless part of the country beyond the reach of…
79 killed in insurgent fighting in Afghanistan →
BLOODY clashes between Afghan insurgents have left up to 79 people dead.
General limits night raids after Afghan anger over... →
THE commander of United States and Nato forces in Afghanistan has issued new rules to limit the use of controversial night raids, which have been blamed for countless civilian deaths and plummeting…
$1bn carrot aims to tempt up to 36,000 insurgents... →
UP TO 36,000 insurgents are fighting in Afghanistan, the general in charge of trying to lure them out of the conflict said yesterday.
Major-General Richard Barrons puts Taleban fighter... →
The general in charge of persuading Afghan fighters to put down their weapons has estimated that there are as many as 36,000 insurgents, giving a rare appraisal of the fighting force at the command…