SHEPHERD CHILDREN KILLED BY NATO AIRSTRIKE

"Eight youths, tending their flock of sheep in the snowy fields of Afghanistan, were exterminated last week by a NATO airstrike. They were in the Najrab district of Kapisa province in eastern Afghanistan. Most were reportedly between the ages of 6 and 14. They had sought shelter near a large boulder, and had built a fire to stay warm. At first, NATO officials claimed they were armed men. The Afghan government condemned the bombing and released photos of some of the victims. By Wednesday, NATO offered, in a press release, “deep regret to the families and loved ones of several Afghan youths who died during an air engagement in Kapisa province Feb. 8.”
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_afghan_wars_nine_lives_20120215/

MILITARY LEADERS MISLEADING ABOUT SITUATION IN AFGHANISTAN

"Senior ranking U.S. military leaders have so distorted the truth when communicating with the U.S. Congress and American people in regards to conditions on the ground in Afghanistan that the truth has become unrecognizable." That’s the assessment of a damning new report by Army Lt. Col. Daniel Davis, who returned in October from his second year-long deployment in Afghanistan and says military officials have misled the American public about how poorly the decade-long war is going..."
http://www.democracynow.org/2012/2/15/army_whistleblower_lt_col_daniel_davis

WAR SUPPLY COST SOARS

"The U.S. is paying six times as much to send war supplies to troops in Afghanistan through alternate routes after Pakistan's punitive decision in November to close border crossings to NATO convoys... it is now costing about $104 million per month to send the supplies through a longer northern route. That is $87 million more per month than when the cargo moved through Pakistan..."
http://news.yahoo.com/us-costs-soar-war-supply-routes-220821812.html

"At the moment, with the cheaper Pakistani routes to Afghanistan cut off by that country’s government... it’s estimated that the cost of resupplying U.S. troops there has risen six-fold... before that route was shut down, a single gallon of fuel for U.S. troops cost at least $400!..."
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/02/14-7

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

U.S. GENERAL FIRED

"The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan has fired a senior officer from his job as the No. 2 general in charge of training for making inappropriate public remarks about Afghan President Hamid Karzai and his government... Maj. Gen. Peter Fuller has been relieved of his duties as deputy commander for the Afghan training mission... Fuller characterized Afghan leaders as erratic, ungrateful and isolated from reality.... saying Afghan leaders don't fully recognize America's sacrifices on their country's behalf..."
http://news.yahoo.com/us-general-fired-afghan-training-job-220453969.html

U.S. NIGHT RAIDS KILLED OVER 1,500 AFGAN CIVILIANS

"U.S. Special Operations Forces (SOF) killed well over 1,500 civilians in night raids in less than 10 months in 2010 and early 2011, analysis of official statistics on the raids released by the U.S.-NATO command reveals... That number would make U.S. night raids by far the largest cause of civilian casualties in the war in Afghanistan. ... Except for a relatively few women and children killed by accident, the civilians who died in the raids were all adult males who were counted as insurgents in press releases... (but) have invariably been either close relatives or neighbours who have come out to assist against an armed assault..."
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=105704