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As many as 60 British servicemen have lost their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan because the Government failed to provide adequate equipment, a Tory inquiry has claimed.

Frederick Forsyth, the author and former RAF pilot chairing the special investigation into the treatment of the armed forces, accused ministers of ‘frittering away billions’ on pet projects while refusing to give troops fighting overseas the resources they need. for more click here

The first British woman was killed in action in Afghanistan in a blast that also claimed the lives of three other soldiers.

They were taking part in an operation east of Lashkar Gah in Helmand Province when their vehicle was caught in an explosion at about 3.40pm local time yesterday.for more click here

LONDON — President Bush received a boost Monday in what has been widely billed as his farewell tour of Europe: pledges for new financial sanctions against Iran and a commitment for a net increase of 230 British troops in Afghanistan.

The new deployment takes the number of British troops in the Central Asian nation to its highest levels, with 8,030 forces now committed in Kabul, Kandahar and Helmand provinces. for more click here

About 500 Taliban rebels have massed in two villages near the Afghan city of Kandahar, a police commander said, as security forces prepared for an operation against them.

“More than 500 Taliban have massed in two villages in Arghandab district,” which is not very far from southern Kandahar city, provincial police chief Sayed Agha Saqeb said. for more click here

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has threatened to send troops over the border into Pakistan to confront militants based there.

He said that when militants crossed over from Pakistan to kill Afghans and coalition troops, his nation had the right to retaliate in “self-defence”. for more click here

PESHAWAR, PAKISTAN — The jirgas, or traditional tribal gatherings, continue late into the night.

And every few weeks, from some remote corner of Pakistan’s untamed frontier region, word filters out: Another truce has been struck between the government and a local warlord who commands a band of pro-Taliban fighters. for more click here

Hundreds of Taleban and other prisoners have escaped from a jail in Kandahar, south Afghanistan, after the group blew up the main gate.

A top official in the city told the BBC about 340 Taleban militants had got away and 15 policemen were killed in the car bomb and rocket attack. for more click here

As the countdown to the end of the hated Bush-Cheney regime proceeds, calls for the U.S. and/or Israel to take military action against Iran, have been multiplying almost in inverse proportion. At the same time, the Islamic Republic has redoubled its efforts to thwart such aggression, in a two-pronged maneuver. On the one hand, the government, and the new leadership in the Majlis (parliament) under Ali Larijani, have reiterated Tehran’s rejection of blackmail regarding the country’s nuclear program; on the other, Iran has launched a campaign to engage its leading international interlocutors in discussion of concrete cooperation aimed at defusing, if not solving, major strategic crisis situations. The recent solution to the prolonged Lebanon crisis is but the most eloquent example of what could and can be achieved in pursuing peace in many crises plaguing the region, {if} Tehran’s role and contribution were accepted. for more click here

Robert Mugabe’s decision to ban relief for his desperate citizens infringes every canon of human decency.

It puts the Zimbabwean government – perhaps too dignified a term – beyond the regimes even of Burma and Sudan in callousness. The crude device of state food for votes is a direct challenge to world sympathy, and to those who believe that such sympathy should be more than a collective cry of woe, and should motivate action. for more click here

WASHINGTON — The U.S. and its allies squandered an opportunity to cement alliances with tribal elders they regard as key to driving Islamic extremists out of havens along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, and now face a long and costly effort to regain influence there, counter-terrorism officials and diplomats say.

The Pashtun maliks, or elders, wield enormous political and social power, especially in Pakistan’s largely ungoverned tribal areas bordering Afghanistan. But Washington and its allies in Islamabad and Kabul have not made it a priority to forge alliances with them, despite evidence that Al Qaeda and the Taliban are growing stronger in their territories, these officials say. for more click here