U.S. IN PEACE TALKS WITH INSURGENTS

"... a representative and son-in-law of longtime Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar... (said) that he had met separately with David Petraeus, former commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan who is now CIA director, and had face-to-face discussions earlier this month with U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker and U.S. Marine Gen. John Allen, currently the top commander in the country... the discussions show that the U.S. knows that... any peace deal would have to be supported by Hekmatyar, who has thousands of fighters and followers primarily in the north and east...

"The U.S. formally declared Hekmatyar a "global terrorist" in 2003 because of alleged links to al-Qaida... He declared war on foreign troops in his country and rebuilt his military forces, which by 2008 had become a major threat to the U.S.-led coalition..."

http://news.yahoo.com/ap-exclusive-us-talks-afghan-insurgent-group-184848900.html

AFGHAN SOLDIER KILLS 4 FRENCH, WOUNDS 16

"Four French soldiers have been killed in northern Afghanistan after a serviceman from the Afghan National Army opened fire... Another 16 French soldiers were injured, some seriously... the French soldiers shot dead were unarmed and were "literally murdered"... France was suspending its training programmes in Afghanistan following the attack... there has been an increasing number of incidents involving Afghan soldiers turning their weapons on Nato forces..."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/mobile/world-asia-16645251