Afghanistan

After 10 months of secret dialogue with Afghanistan's Taliban insurgents, senior U.S. officials say the talks have reached a critical juncture and they will soon know whether a breakthrough is possible, leading to peace talks whose ultimate goal is to end the Afghan war.

A Taliban suicide bomber rammed a vehicle loaded with explosives into an armored NATO bus Saturday on a busy thoroughfare in Kabul, killing 17 people, including a dozen Americans, in the deadliest strike against the U.S.-led coalition in the Afghan capital since the war began.

Britain and its allies are still far from achieving their goals in Afghanistan despite ten years of fighting there, warned a former commander of the coalition forces in the country. General Stanley McChrystal said the allies ‘still don’t know enough’ about Afghanistan and were ‘little better than’ halfway to succeeding in their military aims. The American general spoke out as the Afghan president admitted his government and the coalition had failed to provide ordinary people with security, even though it was a decade since the Taliban regime fell.

The counterinsurgency tactic that is sending U.S. soldiers out on foot patrols among the Afghan people, rather than riding in armored vehicles, has contributed to a dramatic increase in arm and leg amputations, genital injuries and the loss of multiple limbs following blast injuries.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper made a surprise stop in Afghanistan to mark the end of the country’s decade-long military mission in the country, and pay tribute to fallen soldiers.