Helmand, Afghanistan News

The body of a Sunderland soldier killed in Afghanistan in a suspected "friendly fire" incident is being returned to Britain.

A SOLDIER from Bolton has spoken from her Afghanistan base about how much she misses her family - and her horses.

The young Afghan woman leaves home every morning with her face and figure hidden by a burqa.

The Queen has used her Christmas speech to express sadness at the death toll among British troops in Afghanistan.

For Taliban fighters infiltrating Helmand Province from Pakistan, one ratline proved simple. They crossed open desert of pebble, sage, and moon dust toward a lonely mountain ridge, and entered Khan Neshin, a gateway to both the Helmand River Valley and one of the bloodiest corners of the Afghanistan war.

In July, though, US Marines seized towns along the Helmand River in a bid to shut down a central problem of the war: the cross-border flow of fresh fighters. But their march stopped at Khan Neshin, 70 miles short of the Pakistan border, slowing but not shutting down Taliban traffic. Now, some 9,000 of the new troops surging into the country are heading to Helmand to expand security and finish the march south. The scope of the time and manpower dedicated to the effort underscores just how difficult it is to secure the 1,600-mile frontier between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

U.S. Marines in the vanguard of President Barack Obama's Afghanistan "surge" will face a bloody fight for the last major Taliban bastion in southern Helmand Province, their commander said.

The first reinforcements of President Barack Obama's Afghanistan "surge" will give U.S. Marines the forces needed to tackle the last major Taliban stronghold on their patch, a commander said on Tuesday.

A British soldier has been killed in an explosion while on foot patrol in Afghanistan.

The Duke of York made a surprise visit to British troops across Afghanistan as more than 10,000 servicemen and women prepared to spend Christmas away from home.

An army 'super-gym' has opened in Wiltshire to help speed up the rehabilitation of injured soldiers.

The top U.S. military officer visited U.S. Marines at the front in a former stronghold of the Afghan Taliban on Thursday, and promised they would soon have Afghan troops and police to patrol areas they have seized.

TROOPS who set off from their headquarters in Chester are arriving in Afghanistan where they will now spend their Christmas.

Militants struck two checkpoints in separate provinces of Afghanistan, killing at least 15 policemen, authorities said.

Editor's note: CNN correspondent Atia Abawi is returning to the Khan Neshin district in Helmand province, six months after a trip there at the time of a major U.S. Marine-led operation to secure, hold and eventually build in areas of Helmand province that had been under the hands of the Taliban for many years.

The Pentagon's top military officer visited Afghanistan on Monday just as the first of the 30,000 U.S. reinforcements are starting to deploy to the 8-year-old war.

A A A' Taliban fighters attacked checkpoints in northern and southern Afghanistan on Monday, killing a total of 16 members of the Afghan National police, officials said.

Since the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 more than 200 UK soldiers have been killed in action, 100 of those deaths this year alone.

A Plymouth soldier has described himself as "lucky" despite taking shrapnel to the eye while serving in Afghanistan.

The U.S. Marines were tense looking for bombs buried near a mud compound in this remote farming town in southern Afghanistan.

Humanitarian assistance is not reaching refugees displaced by the conflict in the southern Afghan province of Helmand, aid agencies say.