President Bush secretly approved orders in July that for the first time allow American Special Operations forces to carry out ground assaults inside Pakistan without prior approval of the Pakistani government, according to senior American officials. ...more

September 11, 2008

An American military investigation concluded Tuesday that five to seven civilians and 30 to 35 Taliban were killed in an airstrike operation in western Afghanistan last month, far lower than the figure of 90 civilians that Afghan and United Nations officials found in preliminary investigations. ...more

September 3, 2008

After a week of tense public disagreement over the civilian casualty toll in a U.S.-led raid in western Afghanistan, officials from the United Nations, the Afghan government and the NATO-led force in the country said Saturday that all sides had agreed to a joint investigation. ...more

August 31, 2008

Afghan officials said Thursday that a deadly U.S.-led special forces raid on a remote western village last week was based on misleading information provided by a rival clan. ...more

August 29, 2008

A U.N. human rights team has found "convincing evidence" that some 90 civilians - among them 60 children - were killed in airstrikes on a village in western Afghanistan on Thursday night. ...more

August 27, 2008

President Hamid Karzai on Saturday strongly condemned a coalition airstrike that he said killed up to 95 Afghan civilians - including 50 children - in a village in western Afghanistan on Friday, and said his government would be announcing initiatives to prevent such heavy losses of civilian life. ...more

August 24, 2008

U.S.-led troops attacked a compound where Taliban leaders were meeting and killed 30 militants, American and Afghan military officials said Friday, but the Interior Ministry said a large number of civilians died. The United States said it would investigate. ...more

August 23, 2008

Using jet fighters and helicopter gunships, the government unleashed a more aggressive assault against the Taliban in Pakistan's tribal region this week, risking retaliation from the militants and the wrath of thousands of civilians who have been forced to flee their homes. ...more

August 13, 2008

About 200 gunmen on horseback and in SUVs launched a brazen attack on international peacekeepers in Darfur, killing seven in the deadliest strike against the under-equipped and understaffed mission since it deployed, the United Nations said Wednesday. ...more

July 10, 2008

Taliban fighters destroyed bridges and planted mines after overrunning villages outside southern Afghanistan's largest city, Afghan officials and witnesses said. Hundreds of farm families fled while the Afghan army rushed in troops. ...more

June 18, 2008