Against Odds, Path Opens Up for U.S.-Taliban Talks – NYTimes.com

Over the last year, Marc Grossman, a veteran but low-key diplomat, led a small team of American officials who met secretly from Doha, Qatar, to Munich with a shadowy representative …

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Afghanistan: What comes next | The Economist

Afghanistan gets a rotten press in the West but the outlook is not all bad, particularly if the country’s security forces, shown above, do what is hoped …

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U.S. kills Taliban insurgents who downed SEALs’ helicopter – latimes.com

The retribution wasn’t long in coming.

An American airstrike killed the Taliban insurgents whose attack caused a helicopter crash that killed 22 Navy SEALs and eight other U.S. service members, military officials in Kabul and Washington said Wednesday.

However, Marine Gen. John R. Allen, the U.S. commander in Afghanistan, told reporters at the Pentagon that the main Taliban leader in the area remained at large. He did not identify that insurgent commander, the hunt for whom set in motion the events that led to the …

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Pakistani Taliban Claim Responsibility For Deadly Suicide Bombing

HABQADAR, Pakistan — A pair of Taliban suicide bombers attacked paramilitary police recruits eagerly heading home for a break after months of training, killing 80 people Friday in the first act of retaliation for the U.S. raid that killed Osama bin Laden.

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