US media reports are warning that the plight of Afghan women will worsen at the hands of the Taliban after foreign troops withdraw but critics of the occupation say brutalities against women have actually risen under the US occupation since 2001.
The Netherlands formally withdraws its troops in Afghanistan on Sunday, four years after deployment. Army chief General Peter van Uhm said they had achieved "tangible results", but the Taliban welcomed the withdrawal.
A NATO attack during fighting between ISAF troops and Taliban insurgents killed at least 45 civilians in Helmand province last week, according to an Afghan government spokesman on Monday.
A French soldier serving in Afghanistan with international forces has been killed in action after coming under fire from insurgents, France announced Saturday.
Brigadier General Daniel Menard, Canada's senior commander in Afghanistan, has been fired over "inappropriate conduct," the Canadian defence ministry said Sunday, stating that Menard had lost the confidence of his bosses.
A French soldier has died in a vehicle accident in eastern Afghanistan's Surobi province. The latest fatality comes after three French soldiers were killed in a lightning storm in neighbouring Kapisa valley, east of Kabul.
Three French soldiers died accidentally during an overnight operation in a valley in the north-eastern Afghan province of Kapisa, said the French presidency in a statement on Sunday.
A French soldier who was injured in a Taliban bomb attack on Friday that killed one of his comrades and injured eight others has died of wounds at a US military base in Germany.
One French soldier was killed and nine others wounded when the convoy they were travelling in came under an insurgent attack in eastern Afghanistan early on Friday. France has 2,900 troops in the NATO coalition in Afghanistan.
