Afghanistan Follow

Italy’s new centre left government is facing an early test as MPs and senators prepare to vote on whether or not to send more Italian troops to reinforce the US and Nato war in Afghanistan.

Dear Fausto,

The deaths of two more British soldiers in Afghanistan last week shows that war continues to rage across much of the country.

Some object morally to the war, some politically, others have already completed tours of duty and were revolted by their experiences as an occupying army.

Two more British troops died early this week in southern Afghanistan—the second and third killed since British troops took over from the US in Helmand province.

As the United States-led Coalition and Afghan army gear up for a new push against insurgent forces in the south, the country looks set for a long season of intense fighting. The offensive focusing on Helmand and Uruzgan provinces comes as the Taliban extend their attacks to northern and western areas well beyond their traditional stamping ground.

Afghanistan is facing a long and bloody summer. Tony Blair and George Bush claimed that they had "liberated" the country in 2001 when they invaded and drove out the Taliban regime.

A new batch of declassified US army documents has strengthened the case that torture in Iraq and Afghanistan was officially sanctioned, widespread and systematic.

The Afghan capital Kabul was the one place US and Nato occupation forces and the government of president Hamid Karzai could claim control. But an uprising this week, after a US military truck crashed into rush hour traffic killing at least five people, was a major show of opposition to an occupation in which British forces are taking a leading role.

Tanks were patrolling the streets of the Afghan capital Kabul on Tuesday of this week following a wave of demonstrations and riots that targeted symbols of the Western occupation of the country.

The US military in Afghanistan celebrated an air strike on a village this week which they claim killed 20 Taliban fighters.

Near Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, in the village of Qalai Qazi, stands a new, bright yellow health clinic built by US contractor The Louis Berger Group.