Summary: Graphic photos showing U.S. troops posing with dead Afghans have been published by the German newspaper Der Spiegel. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on March 21, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that U.S. military planners had little doubt that an Israeli air campaign against Iranian nuclear facilities would provoke Iranian retaliation against Saudi Arabia and other major oil producers allied with the United States; American efforts to stabilize Afghanistan and Iraq, both of which border Iran, would come under threat — and there would be no way that any U.S. administration, after so many decades pledging undying support for Israel, could make a convincing claim in Muslim eyes that it was not complicit in the attack.

  ::  Read Comments (0)

Summary: In testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Gen. David Petraeus, the U.S. commander in Afghanistan, says much of the Taliban’s battlefield momentum has been halted, putting the U.S. on course to begin pulling out troops in July 2011 and shifting security responsibility to the Afghans. He cautioned, however, that security progress remains “fragile and reversible,” with tough days ahead as the Taliban launch an expected spring offensive. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on March 15, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that the arrest of Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar — second in the Taliban only to one-eyed leader Mullah Mohammed Omain — reportedly infuriated Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who was said to have been holding secret peace talks with the Taliban’s No. 2 when he was captured in Pakistan the previous month, in February 2010.

  ::  Read Comments (0)

Summary: A suicide bomber killed the police chief of the northern Afghanistan province of Kunduz, an increasingly volatile area in a growing Taliban-led insurgency. And in Pakistan, the Taliban detonated a car bomb in Faisalabad, Pakistan’s third-largest city, killing 20 and wounding more than 100 people — underscoring the reach of al-Qaida and Taliban in the U.S.-allied nation. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on March 10, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that the U.S. House of Representatives, by a vote of 356-65, rejected a resolution by Rep. Dennis Kucinich (R-Ohio) to force withdrawal of all U.S. troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2010.

  ::  Read Comments (0)

Summary: U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates visited some of the most hotly contested parts of Afghanistan, where the effects of President Barack Obama’s 30,000-troop surge have been most keenly felt. While Gates expressed optimism, some observers believe U.S. gains in southern Afghanistan might prove illusory in the longer run. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on March 9, 2010, Aubrey Immelman provided his weekly report of U.S. military deaths in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

  ::  Read Comments (0)

Summary: On a visit to Afghanistan, Defense Secretary Robert Gates has ruled out permanent American military bases in Afghanistan, though the U.S. is interested in maintaining a military presence in the former al-Qaida haven beyond the planned end of U.S. combat in three years. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on March 7, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that Adam Gadahn, the American-born English-language propagandist for al-Qaida, had been captured in Karachi, Pakistan. However, it was later revealed that this was a case of mistaken identity and that the man in custody was in fact Abu Yahya Majadin Adam.

  ::  Read Comments (0)

Summary: Taliban gunmen detonated explosives in front of a Kabul Bank branch and then stormed the building in the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad, killing several people and injuring scores of others. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on February 19, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that Joseph Stack, a software engineer with a long-standing grudge against the Internal Revenue Service, crashed a small plane into an office building housing IRS employees in Austin, Texas.

  ::  Read Comments (0)

Summary: Lt. Col. Victor Garcia, deputy commander of the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division deployed in Kandahar province, Afghanistan, says he expects the Taliban to “come back at us hard” in their spring offensive. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on February 8, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that deputy national security adviser John Brennan told NBC’s David Gregory on “Meet the Press” that politicians were using national security to score political points and that he was exasperated with partisan political football over counterterrorism professionals’ handling of failed airline bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab.

  ::  Read Comments (0)

Summary: A spate of attacks against Afghanistan’s intelligence service and international forces killed at least nine people, including five NATO troops, on a bloody day during U.S. Vice President Joe Biden’s visit to the country. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on January 12, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that thousands of Somali boys and teenagers fleeing war and chaos at home are sailing to Yemen, where officials worry that the new arrivals could become the next generation of al-Qaida fighters. U.S. and Yemeni authorities also fear that Islamist fighters from Somalia could slip into the country among the throngs of refugees, deepening ties between al-Qaeda leaders in Yemen and the particularly hard-line al-Shabab militants of Somalia.

  ::  Read Comments (0)

Summary: The United States is sending 1,400 more Marines to Afghanistan in an effort to hold on to fragile security gains in the nearly decade-long war. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on January 6, 2010, Aubrey Immelman provided his weekly report of U.S. military deaths in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

  ::  Read Comments (0)

Summary: A U.S. military commander in southern Helmand province reportedly told Afghanistan’s TOLOnews that the Afghan war is like a “Tom and Jerry” cartoon that never ends, the only difference being that the cartoon, unlike the war, does not claim actual lives. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on January 4, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that the suicide bombing on a CIA base in Afghanistan was carried out by a Jordanian doctor, Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, who was an al-Qaida double agent.

  ::  Read Comments (0)