US President Barack Obama paid a surprise visit to Afghanistan Tuesday to sign an agreement cementing US ties with the country once the combat mission ends in 2014. The visit also marked the anniversary of the killing of terrorist Osama bin Laden.
The United States said Thursday that it had reached a deal with Japan to relocate 9,000 troops from Okinawa to bases in Guam, Hawaii and Australia. US troops on Okinawa have long been a source of friction between Tokyo and Washington.
After weeks of closed-door talks, the US and Afghanistan finalised a partnership agreement Sunday detailing the scope of US involvement in Afghanistan after the withdrawal of its troops in 2014. The deal must be signed by both countries’ presidents.
US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta apologised Wednesday for newly published photos showing American soldiers posing with the body parts of dead Afghan militants. Panetta told reporters he "strongly condemned" the behavior of the soldiers involved.
NATO ministers met Wednesday in Brussels to discuss plans to withdraw troops from Afghanistan and transfer responsibility for security to local forces by 2014 while ensuring the country will not be left vulnerable to a Taliban insurgency.
A US Navy fighter jet crashed into an apartment complex in Virginia Beach in the US state of Virginia Friday soon after takeoff, damaging six buildings and injuring at least nine people.
US Army Staff Sergeant Robert Bales (right) will be charged with murder in the killing of 17 civilians during a shooting spree in southern Afghanistan, a US official said Thursday. Bales also faces six counts of assault and attempted murder.
US Staff Sergeant Robert Bales (right), the soldier accused of killing 16 Afghan civilians in a March 11 shooting spree, does not remember the night of the incident, his lawyer told US media on Monday. Bales turned himself in after the killings.
Anti-American feeling has never been so strong in ten years of war. Afghans are tired of the repeated scandals involving GI's. The latest incident came on March 12th, when a US soldier opened fire on Afghan civilians, killing 16 people. The Bagram incident, where American soldiers burned copies of the Koran, also profoundly shocked the Muslim nation. With every blunder, the American presence in the country after 2014 is called into question, as are ongoing strategic negotiations.
The US Army has identified the soldier suspected of having gunned down 16 civilians last weekend in Afghanistan as Staff Sergeant Robert Bales (pictured right), and said he returned to the US Friday where he is being held in pre-trial confinement.
