The verdict is in and the sentencing phase has begun in the trial of Bradley Manning, the young Army private who transferred more than 700,000 pages of classified data to WikiLeaks. ● Retired Brig. Gen. Robert Carr said [...] [the] relationship [between the US military and the local Afghan population] had already been damaged by the numerous airstrikes and night raids that caused thousands of civilian deaths — how many has never been adequately documented, but researchers estimate the total number of civilian casualties to be close to 20,000. ● One such incident, an airstrike near the village of Garani, in Farah province, in May 2009, figured prominently in Manning’s trial. He was charged with having leaked a video of the raid, which, according to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, "documented a massacre, a war crime." The Garani airstrike allegedly killed as many as 147 villagers, making it the worst civilian casualty incident up to that time. The US military never acknowledged the full scale of the tragedy, insisting that 20 to 30 civilians had died, along with 60 to 65 militants. They did, however, issue a report documenting procedural errors that could have led to the deaths.

Insists US Committed to Stay Beyond 2014. - Secretary of State John Kerry was the latest in the Obama Administration to undercut claims that a “zero option” was being seriously considered, insisting today that the US was absolutely not going to leave by the end of 2014. “We have been very clear about that. We are not withdrawing,” Kerry insisted. He didn’t provide any specifics on how long the US intends to remain in Afghanistan, but President Obama has signed a deal to potentially stay through 2024. Kerry’s comments echoed similar statements from the Pentagon, which insisted that they didn’t even consider leaving a real option. This is in contrast to official claims from the White House that the “zero option” is real.

A series of US airstrikes have claimed the lives of more than 80 people and severely injured several others in different regions of war-ravaged Afghanistan over the past 24 hours, local security sources say. - According to Afghan security officials, one of the airstrikes took place on Tuesday in the central-eastern Logar Province where ten people were killed. The other rocked the northeastern province of Kunar, killing six people, all Pakistani nationals. Local and US military officials have confirmed both attacks, saying all victims were Taliban militants. Also on Monday, at least 65 people lost their lives in a series of US airstrikes in Paktia Province. US military confirmed separate air raids in three villages, saying those killed were militants. The Taliban militants have not yet commented on the attacks. [...] The United States and its allies invaded Afghanistan in 2001 as part of Washington’s so-called war on terror. The offensive removed the Taliban from power, but insecurity remains high in the country.

At least 65 have been killed in overnight airstrikes carried out by US forces in Afghanistan’s eastern province of Paktia, Press TV reports. ■ The casualties came after a series of airstrikes happened in an area of Paktia Province on Sunday night. The US military has confirmed separate air raids in three villages, saying those killed were militants. While Washington claims that its airstrikes target militants, local sources say civilians have been the main victims of the attacks. The Taliban have not yet commented on the deadly incident. ■ Just two days ago, at least 60 people were killed and several others severely injured in similar airstrikes. American forces have increased their air attacks in Afghanistan in recent weeks. ■ The raids are a source of friction between Kabul and Washington as they often result in civilian deaths. The Afghan government has on numerous occasions warned Washington to stop attacks on innocent civilians. ■ Many civilians have lost their lives in US-led strikes and operations in various parts of Afghanistan over the past decade, with Afghans becoming increasingly outraged at the seemingly endless number of the deadly assaults.

New Zealand’s defense minister said Monday that an investigation is underway into a report that U.S. intelligence agencies helped his nation’s military track the mobile telephone calls of a freelance journalist while he worked for McClatchy Newspapers in Afghanistan. - New Zealand Defense Minister Jonathan Coleman said he’d seen “no evidence to support these claims at this point. However, the Defense Force is carrying out extensive record checks to see if there is any evidence that his occurred.” Coleman issued the statement in response to a report published in the Sunday Star Times of Auckland that said that the New Zealand military asked “U.S. spy agencies” to help them collect the “metadata” of cellular calls made by Jon Stephenson, a New Zealand freelance journalist who was based in Afghanistan. The data collection occurred in the latter half of last year while Stephenson was under contract in Kabul for McClatchy and was aimed at identifying Stephenson’s contacts, the report said, citing unidentified sources.

Three American and four Afghan soldiers and an interpreter were killed Tuesday morning in Wardak Province after an insurgent riding a donkey detonated a bomb in one of the most hotly contested districts in the country, officials said. - The attack occurred around 8:30 a.m. as the Americans and Afghans were conducting a joint patrol in a violent stretch of Sayadabad District, close to the main highway leading to Kabul, the capital. At least three more American soldiers were wounded in the bombing, which the Taliban claimed responsibility for.

Russia Today: CIA scales down Afghanistan operations amid troop pullout

At least ten people have been killed after American forces carried out an airstrike in Afghanistan’s eastern province of Logar, Press TV reports. - Local officials said on Saturday that the attack took place in the Mohammad Agha District of the province late on Friday. The authorities identified the victims as Taliban militants, who were holed up at a house in the area when the air raid took place. The Taliban have not yet confirmed any casualties and made no comments on the airstrike. The US-led forces have increased their airstrikes against civilian areas of Afghanistan in recent months.

● At least two people were killed and one more injured on July 6, when US forces launched an airborne assault on the city of Gardez, situated some 100 kilometers (62 miles) south of Kabul.
● On July 3, twenty people were killed and nine others injured when foreign forces carried out an airstrike in the Musa Khel district of Afghanistan’s eastern province of Khost.
● It came a day after four people were killed in a US-led airstrike in the Miyanishin District of the southern province of Kandahar.
● On June 29, eight people were killed when US-led foreign forces launched two separate airstrikes in Paktia and Kandahar provinces.
● Also on June 22, at least 30 people lost their lives after US-led forces mounted an airstrike in Afghanistan’s southeastern province of Paktika. The incident took place at a border checkpoint in the province as Taliban militants were attacking the checkpoint.

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Taliban "militants" in Afghanistan claim they have killed 19 US soldiers in an attack on a military convoy in the eastern province of Ghazni, Press TV reports. - A spokesman for the militant group said the attack was carried out on Monday in Khogyani District of the province. There has been no word of confirmation by the US military. Attacks on foreign troops are expected to rise in the coming months, as Taliban militants have announced the beginning of their ‘offensive’ across Afghanistan. The militant group said it would use “every possible tactic” to inflict casualties on Afghan and US-led forces. They specifically mentioned insider attacks.

Seven people were killed on Tuesday in a suicide car bomb attack in Kabul targeting a foreign logistics company supplying NATO forces, police said. A plume of smoke rose above the scene of the attack in the north of the Afghan capital, which has been hit by a series of recent suicide strikes including on the Supreme Court, the airport and close to the presidential palace. "Four Nepali guards, one Afghan guard and two Afghan civilians have been killed," Kabul police chief Mohammad Ayoub Salangi told AFP. Up to four other people were wounded.

Afghan security forces have battled militants who launched a gun and bomb attack near the presidential palace, in one of the most secure areas of Kabul. - Officials say all the insurgents were killed after heavy clashes. The Taliban say they carried out the attack. President Hamid Karzai was in the palace, but the target appears to have been the nearby Ariana hotel, believed to house a CIA base. This is the latest in a string of attacks on Kabul in recent months. Most recently a suicide bomber in the capital targeted a prominent Afghan politician on 18 June, just hours before Nato formally handed security responsibility to the Afghan forces. With this attack the Taliban infiltrated one of the most heavily-guarded areas of the capital, with several key buildings such as the defence ministry and Nato headquarters located very close by. The Afghan Taliban have showed no sign of abating their assault on security targets, despite last week's announcement that it had set up an office in the Gulf state of Qatar for US-led peace talks.

Michael Hastings, a journalist for BuzzFeed, reportedly died in a fiery car crash early Wednesday morning. The 33-year-old reporter was most famous for his profile of General Stanley McChrystal in Rolling Stone magazine, which led to the general’s ouster. [...]

While it is certainly possible that the car crash was an accident, it must be noted that Hastings no doubt had enemies, including among top military and intelligence officials. As such, the circumstances of his death should be treated as suspicious. Hastings was reportedly deeply troubled by the revelations of government surveillance and spying on journalists. Edward Snowden’s revelations about the National Security Agency’s widespread spying came on June 6. Hastings, who was widely known for his use of new media, stopped tweeting on the June 12, and the car crash came one week later on June 19. [Video]

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The US is to open direct talks with Taliban leaders within days, it was revealed on Tuesday, after Washington agreed to drop a series of preconditions that have previously held back negotiations over the future of Afghanistan. - In a major milestone in the 12-year-old war, political representatives of the Taliban will shortly meet Afghan and US officials in Doha, the capital of Qatar, to discuss an agenda for what US officials called "peace and reconciliation" before further talks take place with Afghan government representatives soon after. The move came on the day that Nato forces handed official control of nationwide security to Afghan troops. Less than 12 hours later the US confirmed that four US personnel died at Bagram air base near Kabul, in what was thought to be a mortar attack. The Taliban claimed responsibility.

Three children have died in a US killer drone strike carried out in Afghanistan’s northeastern province of Kunar, Press TV reports. - The airstrike was conducted during the early hours of Thursday near the Pakistani border. Local officials said six other people, including women, were also injured in the attack. On May 20, at least eight people were killed and several others injured in a similar strike in the eastern province of Kapisa. Hundreds of civilians have been killed in the US airstrikes in various parts of Afghanistan over the past few years, with Afghans becoming increasingly outraged over the seemingly endless number of deadly assaults.

Afghan authorities say the remains of six Afghan civilians missing for almost seven months have been found near a US base, Press TV reports. - The six villagers were among nine Afghans who disappeared in Wardak Province in November 2012. They were last seen being taken into a US Special Forces base. Afghan officials say the victims had been shot dead before being buried near the now-vacant US military base in Nerkh District. The US military has denied any involvement in the incident. On May 21, the footless corpse of an Afghan man missing since November was found near the former US Special Forces base to which he was last seen being taken, according to Afghan officials. Protests erupted earlier this year following claims that US-backed ‘death squads’ were operating in Afghanistan’s troubled province of Wardak. Since then demonstrators have protested against the continued presence of US soldiers in Wardak.

Bill Maher is taken apart by Glenn Greenwald for trying to absolve the US from any responsibility for the mass slaughter and destruction in Muslim countries, blaming it on Islamic fundamentalism, as if the Afghanistan and Iraq wars never happened, as if the US wasn't pushing for more war in Iran, as if it isn't intervening in Somalia and Yemen.

A new report shows that US assassination drones in Pakistan have killed “scores of innocent civilians” instead of targeting terrorists. - On Tuesday, the Brussels-based International Crisis Group (ICG) published a report entitled “Drones: Myths and Reality in Pakistan” that says the United States’ refuses to acknowledge that the CIA-led drone campaign “undermines efforts to assess the program’s legality.” The ICG called on Washington to “demonstrate respect for the international humanitarian law principles of humanity, distinction, proportionality and military necessity.” The report said the US must “establish clearer lines of authority and accountability, including greater congressional and judicial oversight.”

“The Obama administration should terminate any practice, such as the reported signature strikes, that does not comply with principles of international humanitarian and human rights law. It must also introduce transparency to the drone program, including its governing rules, how targets are selected and how civilian damage is weighed.”

Signature strikes target groups of men by using behavior patterns associated with terrorist activity rather than targeting terrorists with known identities. Pakistan’s tribal regions are often attacked by US assassination drones.

Testimony, Documents Link US Citizen to Killings. - Two months after the initial Afghan government demands for the US to withdraw its forces from Wardak Province, the troops are still there, and the government is still unhappy about it. But new details may mean an additional push after their first effort failed to convince the US to go. Afghan officials now say that they have a specific suspect, an Afghan-born American citizen named Zakaria Kandahari, who they have implicated in at least 15 different killings or disappearances, and who they have on video torturing a detainee. Kandahari appears to have been affiliated with the Special Forces in Nerkh District, which were the source of a lot of complaints. Among the 15 he is accused of killing is Mohammad Qassim, whose body was found in a trash pit just outside the base after being detained.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai vowed Thursday to wring concessions out of the United States in negotiations for a security pact for the country, as Washington wants to maintain nine military bases in Afghanistan after ISAF troops withdraw in 2014. - As US and other NATO troops begin to withdraw from the country by 2014, Washington is in talks with Karzai’s government to allow the US Military to retain a residual presence. The size of the force has not yet been determined, but could number between 2,500 and 12,000, according to US officials. The stated aim of the plan is that soldiers would continue to train the Afghan army and police, and carry out attacks on Al-Qaeda militants.

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The Taliban militant group has said that the United States seeks permanent occupation of Afghanistan following its announcement to keep nine military bases in the war-torn country. - Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahed said in an e-mailed statement that the group would not allow the US and its allies to have a permanent presence in Afghanistan, despite an announcement by Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Thursday that Washington had demanded to keep nine military bases across the country. Karzai’s remarks showed that both Kabul and Washington are trying to deprive the Afghan nation of political independence, the spokesman said, adding, “Afghans want an independent Afghanistan. We will never make any deal on our independence.” The Taliban spokesman said that the presence of foreign troops had sustained the ongoing war in Afghanistan and the “longer the occupiers are here, the longer it will take to find peace.”

PressTV: US wants to keep nine military bases in Afghanistan: Karzai
Matthew J. Nasuti: The CIA’s “Ghost Army" is De-Stabilizing Afghanistan

MI6, the British secret intelligence service, has acknowledged they handed “bundles” of cash over to Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai to fund projects aimed at rebuilding the war-torn nation, the Telegraph newspaper has reported. - The news has given rise to claims that direct cash payments might have been used inappropriately and have settled down in pockets of Afghan warlords. The donations were made periodically over the 12 years that Britain has been at war in Afghanistan. The statement about “ghost money” from MI6 followed the reports that the CIA had been providing the Afghan government with millions of dollars in cash since 2001.

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Cinq soldats de la coalition internationale ont été tués ce samedi 4 mai dans le sud de l’Afghanistan. Selon le responsable de la police locale, ces militaires sont des Américains qui ont été visés par un engin explosif dans une région largement infiltrée par les talibans. Les insurgés n’ont pas revendiqué l’attaque. C’est au passage de leur convoi qu’une bombe artisanale a explosé. C'est ce que relate l'Isaf, la coalition internationale en Afghanistan, dans un communiqué. Cette technique est l’une des plus utilisées par les talibans qui visent indistinctement civils, militaires afghans ou étrangers. L'ISAF ne donne pas les nationalités, mais ces cinq soldats « sont Américains », assure le responsable de la police de Kandahar. C'est dans cette province instable du sud du pays qu'a eu lieu cette attaque. Selon les premiers éléments, les militaires étaient en patrouille dans le district de Maiwand quand l'engin explosif, disposé sur la route, a été déclenché.

The Independent: Five American soldiers killed by roadside bomb in Afghanistan

Police 'Disappear' En Masse After Recent Fighting. - Several days of fighting in the northern Faryab Province have seen a major incident of apparent Taliban kidnapping, with local MPs claiming that at least 33 police are believed to have been taken prisoner. Gunbattles were reported over the past week and a half, with a local Taliban leader reportedly killed by Afghan security forces that were trying to drive them from the area. Officials say the “disappearances” are likely related to the fighting. Locals initially reported the “missing” police on Tuesday, but it did not get to officials until today. Taliban have yet to issue any statements on kidnappings, which is unusual for them.

Michel Chossudovsky: In the wake of the 2001 US bombing of Afghanistan, the British government of Tony Blair was entrusted by the G-8 Group of leading industrial nations to carry out a drug eradication program, which would, in theory, allow Afghan farmers to switch out of poppy cultivation into alternative crops. The British were working out of Kabul in close liaison with the US DEA’s “Operation Containment”. The UK sponsored crop eradication program is an obvious smokescreen. Since October 2001, opium poppy cultivation has skyrocketed. The presence of occupation forces in Afghanistan did not result in the eradication of poppy cultivation. Quite the opposite.

Top Afghan officials have been on the CIA’s payroll for over a decade, receiving tens of millions of US dollars in cash. Afghan President Hamid Karzai admitted to receiving the clandestine financial support, but dismissed the sum as a “small amount.” - A New York Times report has revealed that unparalleled corruption in the Afghan government has been encouraged by the US Central Intelligence Agency. Since the start of the decade-long war, CIA agents have delivered cash to Afghan officials in “suitcases, backpacks and, on occasion, plastic shopping bags.” “We called it ‘ghost money,’” said Khalil Roman, President Hamid Karzai’s former chief of staff from 2002 to 2005, adding that it “came in secret, and it left in secret.” There is no evidence that President Karzai was a recipient of any of the money, as Afghan officials claim the cash was distributed by president’s National Security Council, the report said.

New York Times: C.I.A. delivers 'tens of millions of dollars' to Afghan druglords, Taliban

Women’s rights are increasingly heralded as a useful propaganda device to further imperial designs. - Western heads of state, UN officials and military spokespersons will invariably praise the humanitarian dimension of the October 2001 US-NATO led invasion of Afghanistan, which allegedly was to fight religious fundamentalists, help little girls go to school, liberate women subjected to the yoke of the Taliban. The logic of such a humanitarian dimension of the Afghan war is questionable. Lest we forget, Al Qaeda and the Taliban were supported from the very outset of the Soviet-Afghan war by the US, as part of a CIA led covert operation. It was the US which installed the Taliban regime in Afghanistan in 1996, a foreign policy strategy which resulted in the demise of Afghan women’s rights. Religious schools were generously funded by the United States of America.