The NATO military alliance is planning a large-scale offensive in northern Afghanistan this year against Taliban insurgents, a senior German general was quoted as saying on Thursday. "There will definitely be an operation up there in Kunduz (province)," General Bruno Kasdorf, chief of staff in the NATO-led International Security and Assistance Force (ISAF) in Kabul, told the German ARD public ...

Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Thursday boosted the power of an anti-corruption body that had faced fierce accusations of being toothless and half-hearted in its battle to wipe out graft. The High Office of Oversight and Anti-Corruption will now be permitted to investigate allegations of corruption after Karzai publicly signed a decree extending its authority, the president said. The decree ...

Operations to push the Taliban out of their Afghan stronghold of Kandahar are under way and will steadily build in the months ahead, military officials said Thursday. The military and political efforts against the Taliban around Kandahar, Afghanistan's third biggest city and the militia's spiritual capital, are the next step in the US-led strategy to end a ...