Afghanistan War - Page 7

Army Ranger Sgt. Leandro A.S. Jasso, 25, was killed in Afghanistan early Saturday, bringing the number of American troops killed in action in the Afghanistan War up to nine this year.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) told Breitbart News in an exclusive interview on Wednesday that America should be building roads and bridges in America, not Afghanistan.

The United States and the Taliban, in a move described as unprecedented, reportedly agreed to participate in the second round of negotiations to end the more than 17-year-old war in Afghanistan on Friday.

Veteran Saturday Night Live cast member Kenan Thompson said Monday that a joke told by colleague Peter Davidson about former Navy SEAL Dan Crenshaw definitely “missed the mark.”

The Committee for a Responsible Foreign Policy will host an event Wednesday evening in Washington, DC, on how the prolonged war has eroded the U.S. military’s readiness to fight, as the Afghanistan War hits the 18-year mark. 

The seventeenth anniversary of the war in Afghanistan finds al-Qaeda still posing a significant threat to the United States and nurturing its relationship with the Taliban, despite years of U.S. counterterrorism efforts against both groups.

Nearly 17 years after the Afghanistan War began, there are few signs of progress and indications the Taliban is increasing its hold onto power in Afghanistan, despite continued U.S. support for the Afghan government.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) told Breitbart News in an exclusive interview on Tuesday that his diplomatic mission to Russia was a “great success” and that Americans across the political spectrum prefer rebuilding America to nation-building.

The U.K. announced this week that it plans to increase its military footprint in war-devastated Afghanistan by 440 troops – to 1,100 – at the behest of U.S. President Donald Trump, Reuters reports.

Senators on the Armed Services Committee from both sides of the aisle expressed growing impatience and skepticism with the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan during a hearing on Tuesday to vet the next incoming commander, Army Lt. Gen. Austin “Scott” Miller.

The Afghan Taliban chief, Hibatullah Akhundzada, renewed calls this week for direct discussions with the United States to end the nearly 17-year-old war — this time in a statement personally signed by the leader stressing that the withdrawal of “occupying forces” is the “only path” towards peace.

This Memorial Day weekend, thousands of Americans headed to the Arlington National Cemetery to honor those who served and sacrificed.

The Taliban has expressed a desire to have discussions with the U.S., instead of Kabul, about ending the nearly 17-year war in Afghanistan, despite Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s historic peace offer.

Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC) pressed Defense Secretary Jim Mattis about Afghanistan on Tuesday, arguing that success appears out of grasp.

The supreme leader of the Afghan Taliban rubber stamped Pakistan-based “exploratory talks” on re-engaging in peace negotiations to end the more than 16-year-old war in Afghanistan, reports Reuters, signaling that the jihadist group’s battlefield successes in days of yore may be gone.

Breitbart News was able to meet and thank numerous veterans at Battle Tested Equipment’s (BTE) annual Veterans Day Shoot.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s Afghanistan war plan is expected to include an increase in the number of American troops fighting terrorists in the country, prompting some analysts to suggest the “new strategy” is only an extension of the failed status quo.

President Trump will address the nation Monday evening on the U.S.’s path forward in Afghanistan, after 16 years of U.S. military involvement there.

A suicide bombing outside the Supreme Court in Afghanistan’s capital Kabul killed at least 20 people and injured dozens others Tuesday, marking the latest sign of deteriorating security conditions in the war-ravaged nation.

LONDON (AP) — Lawyers for a British Royal Marine commando on Tuesday asked a court to overturn his murder conviction for killing a wounded Taliban fighter in Afghanistan, arguing that mental health problems mean he wasn’t fully responsible for his actions.

An estimated 300 Marines are reportedly gearing up to deploy to the Taliban stronghold and top opium-producing province of Helmand, Afghanistan, as part of a task force expected to train members of the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF).

A spokesman for the Taliban terrorist group in Afghanistan told President Donald Trump in a recent letter it is time for the United States withdraw its troops and leave the war-torn country, noting that peace will be elusive.

U.S. President Donald Trump, during a phone conversation in December, allegedly told his Afghan counterpart that he would mull over expanding the American military footprint in war-torn Afghanistan.

A discussion about President Barack Obama’s legacy cannot ignore his policies in Afghanistan, where security conditions continue to deteriorate primarily at the hands of the Taliban, Afghans have suffered record casualties, and U.S. military fatalities have dramatically increased under his watch.

The Obama administration, with less than two weeks left in power, has announced it is sending some 300 Marines to Afghanistan’s Helmand province to train, advise and assist Afghan security forces struggling to push the group out of the top opium-producing Helmand.

The war in Afghanistan is at an “eroding stalemate” after more than 15 years of war, “tipping in the Taliban’s favor,” an unnamed senior administration official told The Washington Post (WaPo).

Nearly 100 members of the corrupt U.S.-funded Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) were executed by the Taliban as they tried to flee a town near the besieged capital of Helmand, a province that has remained an important Taliban stronghold throughout the 15-year-old war and is currently at risk of falling back into the hands of the jihadists, reports Reuters.

The Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) branch in Afghanistan, known as the Khorasan Province (IS-KP/ISIL-K), has claimed responsibility for planting the Improvised Explosive Device (IED) that killed a U.S. service member, bringing the number of American military fatalities during the Afghan war to 2,241.

A watchdog agency overseeing the U.S. presence in Afghanistan found evidence that U.S. government policies may have fueled the growth of the endemic and widespread corruption in Afghanistan and aided terrorist groups targeting American soldiers.

Since President Barack Obama escalated the conflict soon after taking office in 2009, the United States has resettled 6,205 Afghan refugees and 766 asylees within its borders, in addition to admitting 24,352 Afghans under a special immigrant visas (SIVs) program for those who were employed by the U.S. government at some point during the ongoing war, according to U.S. government data.

Italian anti-drug units, over a 32-month period, intercepted 20 enormous freighters used to traffic a collective 280 tons of hashish valued at about $3.2 billion through territory near Libya believed to be controlled by the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL), reports The New York Times (NYT).

U.S. troops fighting the Islamic State alongside their Afghan counterparts in eastern Afghanistan were forced to leave behind military equipment and weapons, along with the identification cards of a fellow soldier, when they came under fire last month, according to Gen. Charles Cleveland, an American military spokesman.

The leader of the Islamic State’s branch in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region, Hafiz Saeed, has been killed, according to regional Afghan military commander Gen. Mohammad Zaman Waziri.

Jihadists from the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) branch in Afghanistan have released several photos that purport to show the identification card of a U.S. soldier, along with weapons and other military equipment confiscated from American troops in eastern Afghanistan.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The top U.S. commander is employing a special authority recently granted by President Barack Obama to bring in additional troops into Afghanistan for an offensive against the Islamic State in their stronghold located in the eastern part of the country along the Afghan-Pakistan border.

Civilian casualties in Afghanistan reached 5,166 during the first half of this year, an all-time high, with children paying a heavy toll, reports the United Nations.