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KABUL, Afghanistan: A United Nations human rights team has found “convincing evidence” that some 90 civilians — among them 60 children — were killed in air strikes on a village in western Afghanistan on Thursday night, a statement issued by the United Nations mission in Kabul said, making it almost certainly the deadliest case of civilian casualties caused by any United States military operation in Afghanistan since 2001.

The United Nations the team visited the scene and interviewed survivors and local officials and elders, getting a name, age and gender of each person reported killed. The team reported that 15 people had been injured Read more »

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BAGHDAD — Several thousand supporters of anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr protested Friday against an emerging U.S.-Iraqi security agreement, saying it would turn Iraq into a U.S. colony.

The march in the southern city of Kufa came a day after U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met with Iraqi leaders in Baghdad to discuss the deal, which includes a gradual withdrawal of U.S. forces.

Under a draft agreement, American combat troops would pull out of major Iraqi cities by next June and leave Iraq by 2011, according to Iraqi officials familiar with the document.

The schedule could be modified if the two governments agree, Read more »

Gordon Brown visited Afghanistan today to praise British troops, but couldn’t escape questions about his leadership.

To his obvious irritation, the news conference was dominated by questions from British reporters about his political plight at home and a possible leadership challenge by Foreign Secretary David Miliband.

The Prime Minister insisted that he was concentrating on Britain’s economic difficulties and that he had a “good relationship” with Mr Miliband.

“We get on with the job. What people want us to do is get on with the economic problems Read more »

An image of the Burum Ocean — a suspected pirate mother ship in the Gulf of Aden.

Pirates hijacked three ships off the coast of Somalia Thursday in the “worst number of attacks” in one day in many years, an international maritime watchdog has told CNN.
“Four attacks in two days, ships being hijacked and crews being taken, and large ransoms being demanded is completely unacceptable,” said Capt. Pottengal Mukudan of the International Maritime Bureau (IMB), which monitors shipping crime.

Pirates fired at a ship sailing under an Iranian flag and boarded it around 2:20 a.m. local time Thursday (10:20 p.m. ET Wednesday), said Noel Chong, head of the International Chamber of Commerce’s Piracy Reporting Centre, a multinational coalition naval task force that monitors Read more »

The French president meets his Afghan counterpart, Hamid Karzai

Nicolas Sarkozy made a brief visit to Afghanistan today after the French army’s worst loss of life by enemy attack in a quarter of a century.

The French president spoke to troops from units that lost 10 men in the mountain battle about 30 miles east of Kabul on Monday.

Sarkozy said he had no regrets about sending more troops to the region earlier this year, despite the political firestorm that has broken out in France since Monday’s ambush.

“I have no doubt that we must be here. I am also in shock … but I tell you in good conscience Read more »

A French armored vehicle on its way to Sarobi, where insurgents killed 10 paratroopers Tuesday.

BAMIYAN, Afghanistan — Taliban insurgents mounted their most serious attacks in six years of fighting in Afghanistan over the last two days, including a coordinated assault by at least 10 suicide bombers against one of the largest American military bases in the country, and another by about 100 insurgents who killed 10 elite French paratroopers.
The attack on the French, in a district near Kabul, added to the sense of siege around the capital and was the deadliest single loss for foreign troops in a ground battle since the United States-led invasion chased the Taliban Read more »