Summary: A suicide bomber killed 16 people and wounded at least 23 others in a busy city square in western Afghanistan, while near the capital Kabul a powerful former warlord and ally of Afghan President Hamid Karzai narrowly escaped an assassination attempt. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on November 20, 2008, Aubrey Immelman reported that U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, appearing on Fox News’ “Hannity & Colmes” on November 18, 2008, dismissed as an “urban legend” reports that she had said on an October 17, 2008 cable show with MSNBC’s Chris Matthews that then-Sen. Barack Obama and other members of Congress “may have anti-American views” and that “the news media should do a penetrating exposé … and find out if they’re pro-America or anti-America.”

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Summary: Bomb attacks killed three American troops in Afghanistan, while civilian casualties sparked a protest by a group of angry villagers shouting “Death to America!” … A suicide bomber driving a dynamite-laden truck destroyed a key bridge on a highway in Iraq’s western Anbar province linking Iraq to Syria and Jordan. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on the 38th day after losing his 2008 primary challenge against U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann in Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District, Aubrey Immelman, in line with his focus on national security, reported on Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki’s criticism of U.S. commander Gen. Ray Odierno and street protests against the U.S.-Iraq status-of-forces agreement by supporters of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. He also posted a daily summary of security incidents in Iraq.

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Summary: Afghanistan’s Taliban mocked the award of a Nobel Peace Prize to U.S. President Barack Obama, saying he should get a Nobel Prize for violence instead. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on the 30th day after losing his 2008 primary challenge against U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann in Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District, Aubrey Immelman, in line with his focus on national security, reported on efforts by the U.S. and Iraq to hammer out a status-of-forces agreement amid meddling by Iran and rifts among Sunni, Shiite, and Kurdish factions in the Iraqi government.

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Summary: The Washington Post reports in its Sunday, Sept. 6, 2009 edition that a NATO fact-finding team estimates that about 125 people, many of them civilians, were killed in a U.S. airstrike in Afghanistan guided by a lone informant. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on the 53rd day of his campaign against U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann for the Republican nomination as House of Representatives candidate in Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District, Aubrey Immelman reported on his campaign stops the previous day north of the St. Paul metro in the cities of Wyoming and Forest Lake in Washington County on his way to the final night of the Republican National Convention, where he observed the action outside the convention hall. He also featured information from the St. Paul Pioneer Press voter guide regarding his campaign platform and issue positions.

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Summary: At least 40 U.S. troops died in Afghanistan in July 2009, by far the heaviest monthly toll in the 8-year-old war. The worst previous month for U.S. forces was September 2008, when 26 were killed. … Three U.S. troops were killed Aug. 1, 2009 in southern Kandahar province, Afghanistan, when roadside bombs ripped through their patrol. … Three U.S. troops were killed Aug. 2, 2009 in eastern Afghanistan in a complex ambush involving a roadside bomb and gunfire. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on the 18th day of his 2008 campaign against U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann in Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District, Aubrey Immelman addressed the deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan, where violence had begun to spread to once-stable regions. He also reported economic indicators that the U.S. had begun to slide into recession.

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Summary: Seven U.S. troops die in three attacks in Afghanistan; commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, issues new guidelines limiting the use of airstrikes against residential compounds and other locations likely to produce civilian casualties, alienating Afghan villagers and causing loss of support for the Afghan government and the international mission.

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Summary: The number of Afghan civilians killed in armed conflict surged to a record 2,118 in 2008 as the Afghanistan war turned increasingly bloody, the UN said in a new report. Insurgents were responsible for 55 percent of the deaths, but U.S., NATO, and Afghan forces killed 39 percent, the report said. Of those 829 deaths by the forces, 552 were blamed on airstrikes.

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Summary: With the reduction of violence in Iraq following a U.S. troop “surge” and other measures, foreign militants are now flooding into Afghanistan to join Taliban insurgents battling Afghan and international troops, according to Afghan Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak.

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Summary: On the eighth day after losing his 2008 primary challenge against U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann in Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District, Aubrey Immelman, in line with his focus on national security, reported on a Pakistani military order to fire on U.S. troops crossing the Afghan border for raids into Pakistan; the increasing number of U.S. troops killed in Afghanistan; the high rate of Afghan civilian casualties; and a spate of bombings and shootings in Iraq.

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