A look at the opium poppy production problem in southern Afghanistan

Helmand province, where 4,000 U.S. Marines launched a major anti-Taliban offensive Thursday, is the world’s largest cultivator of opium poppies — the crop used to make heroin.

Marines battle Taliban and heat in Afghan offensive; US soldier believed captured elsewhere

NAWA, Afghanistan — U.S. Marines hiked through searing heat and took fire from small pockets of militants Thursday after landing in this Taliban-controlled southern region of tree-lined fields, mud homes and crisscrossing waterways in the first major operation under President Barack Obama’s strategy to stabilize Afghanistan.

Thousands of US Marines pour into Afghan south to oust anti-Taliban; soldier missing elsewhere

NAWA, Afghanistan — Thousands of U.S. Marines poured from helicopters and armored vehicles into Taliban-controlled villages in southern Afghanistan on Thursday in the first major operation under President Barack Obama’s strategy to stabilize the country.

Al Jazeera calls for release of its Afghan journalists

KABUL - Al Jazeera said Tuesday that it had been unable to contact two of its Afghan journalists who were detained by Afghanistan’s intelligence service and has called for their immediate release.

At least 630 US military deaths in Afghanistan region since 2001, Defense Department says

As of Tuesday, June 9, 2009, at least 630 members of the U.S. military had died in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan as a result of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, according to the Defense Department. The department last updated its figures Tuesday at 10 a.m. EDT.

Double suicide attack kills, wounds at least 20 in southern Afghanistan, official says

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — A double suicide bomb attack killed and wounded at least 20 people in southern Afghanistan on Sunday, an official said. The majority of casualties were police and army units responding to the initial attack.

UK Govt. may order probe of Afghan medals scam

LONDON - The arrest of a British Army major who won the Military Cross “for consistent bravery and inspirational leadership” after he allegedly exaggerated accounts of his bravery, has reportedly prompted the Gordon Brown government to consider a review of the dozens of gallantry medals awarded to British troops fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan’s southern Helmand province.

A bomb greets a new American unit trying to gain foothold in Afghan countryside

TANGI VALLEY, Afghanistan — Only a few Afghan villagers waved as the new American forces patrolled deep into this valley, a warning sign even in a region not exactly known for its love for foreign troops.

Multiple suicide bombers kill 10 in Afghanistan

KABUL - Four militants outfitted with explosives and automatic rifles attacked a provincial council office in southern Afghanistan Wednesday, killing seven civilians and three police officers, an interior ministry spokesman said.