Afghanistan

World News

NATO Pressures Karzai To Sign Troop Pact With U.S.

7:30am February 27, 2014

by Sean Carberry

Without the deal, Obama told Afghan President Hamid Karzai this week that the U.S. will move ahead with plans to pull all U.S. troops out the country by the end of 2014. NATO plans to follow suit.

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Obama Tells Pentagon To Plan A Full Afghan Departure

7:43am February 26, 2014

by Tom Bowman

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has refused to sign a security agreement that would keep U.S. troops in his country. Despite the pressure, Obama is giving Afghan officials more time to finish a deal.

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Afghan Prisoner Release Promises To Inflame Tensions

7:58pm February 13, 2014

Strained relations between Afghanistan and the U.S. and NATO may only get worse this week. The Afghan government is releasing 65 prisoners, many of whom have been accused by the West of plotting and participating in terrorist activities. Robert Siegel speaks with Nathan Hodge of The Wall Street Journal to learn more about the rationale behind this release and what it might mean for Afghan security and diplomacy.

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Local Economy Suffers After Afghan Housing Bubble Bursts

1:28pm February 11, 2014

by Sean Carberry

The housing bubble in Afghanistan was created by the influx of international organizations and their thousands of workers over the last 12 years. As countries pull out of Afghanistan, rent prices are tumbling, vacancies are soaring and sales have flatlined.

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Conditions are spare at the Window of Hope orphanage in Kabul, but American NGO worker Siavash Rahbari (upper left) says it's still better than how many Afghan children live.

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Texas Man Becomes Unlikely CFO Of Ragged Kabul Orphanage

6:14pm January 04, 2014

by Sean Carberry

After decades of war in Afghanistan, the country has thousands of orphans. One home for these children ended up with an improbable benefactor — an Iranian-American who came to Kabul to do rule of law development work, and stumbled into a side project working with disabled orphans.

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Auliya Atrafi in his office in Nad Ali, next to a selection of the books he had shipped from England. His library is one of his prized possessions, and he shipped them because he's unlikely to find these books in his native Afghanistan.

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There And Back Again: One Afghan's Journey To Find Home

9:28pm December 04, 2013

by Sean Carberry

In 2000, Auliya Atrafi paid thousands of dollars and risked his life to escape Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. He spent 12 years in England, but recently returned to his homeland, where he is trying to readjust to — and change — life in a conservative society.

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Afghans hold large, expensive weddings, even those involving families of modest means. More than 600 people attended this recent marriage at a large wedding hall in Kabul.

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Crashing An Afghan Wedding: No Toasts But Lots Of Cheesy Music

6:17pm November 30, 2013

by Sean Carberry

Afghanistan is a poor country with very expensive weddings. There is no alcohol, the sexes are completely segregated, and the families may negotiate over the dowry right up to the last minute.

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A helicopter from the American security contractor DynCorp provides air support as members of an Afghan eradication force plow opium poppies on April 3, 2006, in the Helmand province, Afghanistan.

When Most U.S. Forces Leave Afghanistan, Contractors May Stay

4:35pm November 28, 2013

by Tom Bowman

Should the Afghan government sign a security agreement, the U.S. plans to keep as many as 9,000 American troops in Afghanistan even after the U.S. and NATO's combat mission officially ends late in 2014. But the remaining U.S. troops will almost certainly be outnumbered by civilian contractors.

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An Afghan soldier stands guard in the western city of Herat in October. U.S. Maj. Gen. James McConville, who commands coalition forces in eastern Afghanistan, says Afghan forces did hold their ground this year, but "they're not winning by enough that the

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How Will Afghan Forces Fare As NATO Troops Draw Down?

5:54pm November 19, 2013

by Sean Carberry

The onset of winter in Afghanistan usually means an end to the so-called fighting season. That may not hold this year as the Taliban vow to pursue an aggressive campaign in advance of a presidential election.

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An Afghan farmer collects raw opium as he works in a poppy field in Nangarhar province on April 29. Poppy cultivation reached a record high this year despite Western efforts to reduce it.

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Afghan Farmers: Opium Is The Only Way To Make A Living

8:33pm November 14, 2013

Opium poppy cultivation has hit a record level, according to a new U.N. report. Western countries have been trying to eradicate the poppies for years. Yet it remains the single largest economic sector in places like the southern province of Helmand.

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