Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan - Taliban insurgents once derided as a ragtag rabble unable to match U.S. troops have transformed into a fighting force - one advanced enough to mount major conventional attacks and claim American lives at a record pace. The U.S. military suffered its 101st death of the year in Afghanistan last week. The total number of U.S. dead last year, 111, was a record itself and is likely to be surpassed. Top U.S. generals, European presidents and analysts say the blame lies to the east, in militant sanctuaries in neighboring Pakistan. As long as those areas remain havens where fighters arm, train, recruit and plot increasingly sophisticated ambushes, the Afghan war will continue to sour. "The U.S. is now losing the war against the Taliban," Anthony Cordesman of the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, wrote in a report Thursday.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Scores of Afghan civilians who had gathered in a small village for the memorial ceremony of a militia commander were killed when U.S. and Afghan soldiers launched an attack in the middle of the night, officials and villagers said Saturday. President Hamid Karzai condemned the early Friday operation in western Afghanistan and said most of the dead were civilians. Amid allegations that large numbers of civilians have died in recent raids and airstrikes by foreign forces, President Karzai's government has demanded a review of the presence of U.S. and NATO troops in the country. The government Monday ordered its foreign affairs and defense ministries to review the presence of foreign troops, regulate their presence with a status of forces agreement and negotiate a possible end to "air strikes on civilian targets, uncoordinated house searches and illegal detention of Afghan civilians."