Free Republic

KABUL, Afghanistan – A suicide bomber rammed his car into a U.S. convoy in Kabul on Thursday, killing at least 15 people including two American soldiers and four civilian contractors, officials said. The brazen attack made May the deadliest month this year for coalition forces. Cmdr. Bill Speaks, a spokesman for the U.S. Defense Secretary, confirmed that the two soldiers from the NATO military coalition who were killed in the bombing were Americans. He would not comment on the nationalities of the civilian contractors. It was the bloodiest attack in the Afghan capital since March 9, when suicide bombers struck...

Lahore - Since 2004, the US has carried out over 350 drone strikes inside Pakistan, killing some of the top al-Qaeda and Taliban commanders. A number of civilians also died in the attacks. PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif, who is poised to become Pakistan's new prime minister, today said he wanted to strengthen his country's testy ties with the US but insisted that the CIA's controversial drone attacks must end as it posed a "challenge" to national sovereignty. "Drones indeed are challenging our sovereignty. Of course we have taken this matter up very seriously. I think this is a very serious...

When Pakistani voters go to the polls later this week, the choice they face includes parties tainted by corruption allegations and those led by politicians appealing to anti-Western sentiment. The man favored to become Pakistan’s next prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, on Saturday called into question the U.S.-backed campaign by the Pakistani military against Taliban insurgents in the country. “I think guns and bullets are always not the answer to such problems,” Sharif, a former two-term prime minister who was overthrown in a 1999 military coup led by Gen. Pervez Musharraf, told the Reuters wire service. In a separate interview with...

The Libyan militia group that the State Department hired to defend its embattled diplomatic mission in Benghazi had clear al-Qaida sympathies, and had prominently displayed the al-Qaida flag on a Facebook page for months before the deadly attack. That organization, the February 17th Martyrs Brigade, was paid by the U.S. government to provide security at the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya. But there is no indication the Martyrs Brigade fulfilled its commitment to defend the mission on Sept. 11, when it came under attack.

Do you remember what happened last year on 9/14? Where are the White House phone calls for the families who continue to grieve? What is being done to prevent another fatal attack like the one on 9/14? And why is the full truth being withheld from the American public? Benghazi isn't the only bloody disaster being covered up by the Obama administration. As I reported in a series of columns and blog posts last fall, three days after the deadly siege on our consulate in Libya, the Taliban waged an intricately coordinated, brutal attack on Camp Bastion in Afghanistan. Two...

KABUL — After three tours in Afghanistan, the departing U.S. second-in-command for the country stayed on message but sounded a note of caution at a farewell news conference Tuesday. Lt. Gen. James Terry referred to the main issues often cited by coalition leaders as markers of success in Afghanistan — increased access to education, healthcare and cell phone service for Afghans and the increased capabilities of the Afghan Security Forces. But he stopped short of predicting the demise of what has proved to be a stubborn insurgency. “I’m not going to make any predictions,” he said. “My first time here...

A cargo plane crashed during takeoff at Bagram Air Field in Afghanistan on Monday, a U.S. military spokesman said. The Associated Press didn’t know about casualties. Other media reported that the crew was killed. Taliban members tried to claim responsibility, but military coalition officials denied the group’s involvement, AP said. “Taliban’s claims are false,” the coalition said in a statement to AP. “There was no enemy activity or involvement during this incident.”