Link: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/afghanistan/article7063184.ece

Covert troops who killed two pregnant women and a teenage girl in eastern Afghanistan went on to inflict “cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment” on the survivors of a botched night raid, a report by the UN said.

Link: http://wsws.org/articles/2010/mar2010/hits-m16.shtml

A long-time US military official used Pentagon funding to establish a private intelligence and assassination network in Afghanistan and Pakistan, according to a report Monday in the New York Times. The network was shut down after the CIA station chief in Kabul objected to a competing military-backed intelligence operation, the newspaper said.

Link: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/afghanistan/article7060395.ece

A night raid carried out by US and Afghan gunmen led to the deaths of two pregnant women, a teenage girl and two local officials in an atrocity which Nato then tried to cover up, survivors have told The Times.

Link: http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=50477

Afghan police are widely considered corrupt, unable to shoot straight, and die at twice the rate of Afghan soldiers and NATO troops. After seven billion dollars spent on training and salaries in the last eight years, several U.S. government investigations are asking why.

Link: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/02/2010227134828232750.html

Afghan officers will begin to take charge of the prison facility at Bagram, currently run by the US military, from next week. Addressing a news conference at the jail near the capital Kabul on Saturday, US and Afghan officials said the handover of the prison would be gradual over the coming year as Afghan officers still require training.

Link: http://www.uruknet.de/?s1=1&p=63720&s2=01

$2000 per dead child! That's the amount of compensation offered by the Pentagon for the "collateral damage" which it has caused in Afghanistan. As the war escalates and more innocent victims of Washington's aggressive actions accumulate in number, the US military calculates what it will take to placate grieving Afghan parents.

Link: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/02/201022618258686515.html

The United States is planning to launch a military offensive in Afghanistan's Kandahar city following the military operation to drive Taliban fighters out of the town of Marjah in Helmand province, a senior US official has said.

Link: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/02/201022625531437595.html

Several suicide bombers attacked a hotel popular with foreigners in Kabul, the Afghan capital. At least 17 people were killed and 32 wounded when several suicide bombers attacked a hotel popular with foreigners and the surrounding area in the centre of Kabul. The Taliban have claimed responsibility for Friday's attack, one of the deadliest attacks on the Afghan capital in a year.

Link: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/afghanistan/article7040078.ece

Private American security guards working for the US military in Afghanistan removed hundreds of handguns and automatic weapons from stores intended for the exclusive use of the Afghan police and used them on drunken shooting rampages that killed two Afghan civilians and injured at least two more.

Link: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/afghanistan/article7040166.ece

A night-time raid in eastern Afghanistan in which eight schoolboys from one family were killed was carried out on the basis of faulty intelligence and should never have been authorised, a Times investigation has found.

Link: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/02/201022214235669261.html

The general overseeing the US military campaign in Afghanistan has warned that the offensive against the Taliban in southern Helmand province's Marjah town is just the start of an operation that could last 18 months. General David Petraeus, the commander of US Central Command, said on Sunday that the months ahead will be "tough". "I have repeatedly said that these types of efforts are hard and they're hard all the time. I don't use words like optimist or pessimist, I use realist but the reality is that it's hard and we're there for a very, very important reason and we can't forget that.

Link: http://wsws.org/articles/2010/feb2010/pers-f17.shtml

The offensive begun February 13 against the town of Marjah is the first major effort undertaken by the US military in Afghanistan since President Barack Obama ordered the intensification of the US war effort and the dispatch of 30,000 additional American troops. The attack on Marjah is the largest US military operation in the war since the initial 2001 invasion ordered by George W. Bush.

Link: http://www.democracynow.org/2010/2/17/group_nato_forces_blocking_wounded_afghan

The US is coming under increasing criticism over the rise in civilian casualties during the assault on the Afghan city of Marjah, one of the largest military offensives of the eight-year war. At least nineteen civilians have been killed so far, including six children who died when a missile struck their house on the outskirts of the city. We speak with Matteo dell’Aira, medical coordinator of the Emergency Lashkar Gah hospital.

Link: http://www.uruknet.info/index.php?p=m63367&hd=&size=1&l=e

“It Will Take Weeks To Clear Marja, To Really Go House-To-House, Road-To-Road” “When It Is Daytime, There Is Nonstop Contact Until The Sun Goes Down ... Every Day” “The Skill Displayed By Taleban Insurgents Showed High Levels Of Tactical Awareness And Training — Including ‘Walking’ Mortar Fire On To The Marines And Persistent And Accurate Sniper Fire”