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.

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Summary: A NATO airstrike killed at least 25 suspected insurgents in eastern Afghanistan and a Taliban suicide attack killed six American troops in southern Afghanistan while other violence left 22 civilians dead in a wave of attacks days before President Obama issues his 2010 review of U.S. strategy in the Afghanistan war. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on December 13, 2009, Aubrey Immelman reported that analysts believed the nuclear threat from North Korea and Iran had become more serious than it had been the year before.

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Summary: The number of foreign troops killed in Afghanistan this year has reached at least 500, compared with 521 in all of 2009, according to the independent monitoring site icasualties.org and a tally compiled by Reuters. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on September 6, 2009, Aubrey Immelman reported that opinion polls showed support for President Barack Obama and his policies dipping sharply, though he remained personally more popular than his policies. How will those dynamics impact the 2010 election and what do they tell us about President Obama’s personal qualities and leadership style?

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Summary: In Afghanistan, a spike in bloodshed has claimed the lives of 19 U.S. service members in just four days, elevating the U.S. death toll for August to 55, with 76 fatalities in total for NATO forces. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on September 1, 2009, Aubrey Immelman provided his weekly report of U.S. military deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan and reported that with 52 U.S. troops killed, August 2009 became the deadliest month of the deadliest year yet in the Afghanistan war; that the commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan called for a new strategy against the Taliban in an assessment of the 8-year-old conflict ordered by the U.S. Secretary of Defense; and that the number of civilians killed in Iraq shot up to 393 in August 2009, the highest level since April 2009, after a spate of mass-casualty bombings caused carnage in Baghdad and northern Iraq.

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Summary: A car bomb outside a Shiite mosque in the village of Abu Sayda near Baqouba north of Baghdad killed 15 people, the third deadly attack in the region in as many days, while a U.S. soldier was killed in a separate bombing in the same province. … The Taliban claims it shot down a helicopter that crashed in southern Afghanistan, killing two U.S. service members. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on July 22, 2009 Aubrey Immelman reported that Iraq’s western city of Ramadi, Anbar province, declared a state of emergency and imposed a vehicle ban after several bomb attacks; bombs also exploded across Baghdad, killing 16 people and wounding dozens.

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Summary: June 7, 2010 marks the end of 104 months of war in Afghanistan, making it the longest war in American history after the Vietnam War, which continued for 103 months following the Aug. 7, 1964 Tonkin Gulf Resolution. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on June 7, 2009 Aubrey Immelman provided his weekly report of U.S. military deaths in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan), compiled from U.S. Department of Defense News Releases.

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Summary: An explosion that killed an American and an Afghan soldier on a military base in Kabul on April 19, 2010 was carried out by a suicide bomber, the second time in five months an insurgent has managed to infiltrate a base. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on April 24, 2009, Aubrey Immelman reported that back-to-back suicide bombings killed 60 people outside the most important Shiite shrine in Baghdad, a day after the country was rocked by its most deadly violence in more than a year. The bombings, in which nearly 80 people were killed, were the latest in a series of high-profile attacks blamed on Sunni insurgents. Meanwhile, a new review of available evidence compiled by The Associated Press indicated that more than 110,600 Iraqis had died in violence since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

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Summary: More than eight years after the Taliban was toppled from power, the number of U.S. military fatalities in the war in Afghanistan is nearing 1,000, a grim milestone in a resurgent conflict that is claiming the lives of an increasing number of troops who had survived previous combat tours in Iraq. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on February 24, 2009, Aubrey Immelman reported that although the worst of the sectarian bloodshed and loss of American lives have ebbed in Iraq, U.S. service members continue to die in the 5-year war.

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Summary: The death of two U.S. soldiers in southern Afghanistan has brought to at least 22 the number of American service members killed so far this month — compared with only 14 for the whole of January 2009. … In Pakistan, militants ambushed Pakistani security forces at checkpoints in two regions close to the Afghan border, sparking gunbattles that left 22 insurgents and two troops dead. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on January 23, 2009, Aubrey Immelman reported that a U.S. Army probe into suicides among Houston-based recruiters, all veterans of combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, said medical problems factored in the deaths but none had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

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Summary: Six NATO service members, including three Americans, have been killed in Afghanistan, making it the deadliest day for the international force in more than two months. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on January 11, 2009, Aubrey Immelman reported that President George W. Bush in 2008 rejected a plea from Israel to help it raid Iran’s main nuclear complex, opting instead to authorize a new U.S. covert action aimed at sabotaging Iran’s suspected nuclear weapons program, according to the New York Times.

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