KABUL (Reuters) – President Hamid Karzai warned the NATO-led force in Afghanistan on Tuesday that launching attacks on Afghan homes in pursuit of insurgents was “not allowed” and that patience with the tactic had run out after a spate of civilian casualties.

“NATO must learn that air strikes on Afghan homes are not allowed and that Afghan people have no tolerance for that anymore,” Karzai told a news conference in Kabul.

KABUL (Reuters) – Afghan leaders on Sunday appeared to accuse Pakistan of harbouring insurgents behind a suicide bombing that killed one of the most powerful men in northern Afghanistan.

The government also said it was investigating whether security forces had been infiltrated.

KABUL (Reuters) – Afghan leaders on Sunday appeared to accuse Pakistan of harboring insurgents behind a suicide bombing that killed one of the most powerful men in northern Afghanistan.

The government also said it was investigating whether security forces had been infiltrated.

KABUL (Reuters) – NATO will protect its troops and Afghans from militants based across the border in Pakistan, the NATO chief said Tuesday, reiterating pledges by the United States to target insurgents there who have escalated attacks since Osama bin Laden’s death.

President Barack Obama’s aides are divided between a “hug them” or “hit them” approach to dealing with Pakistan, where anger at the May 2 U.S. on Pakistani soil to kill bin Laden is matched in Washington by angry questions about Islamabad’s ties to militants.

KABUL (Reuters) – NATO will extend the length of its police training course across Afghanistan from October as it takes aim at staggeringly low literacy rates and corruption among the force before all security is handed over to the Afghans by the end of 2014.

The NATO-led alliance has been training members of the 126,000-strong Afghan National Police since 2009. Afghan police had long been viewed as inept and lagging behind the training of the army, which was the focus of foreign instruction efforts since U.S.-backed Afghan forces toppled the Taliban in 2001.

KABUL (Reuters) – The Taliban has warned majority Muslim Kazakhstan that its decision to send troops to the NATO-led war in Afghanistan would have severe consequences and was not in its regional interest.

The statement, distributed to media on Saturday, appeared to nod to a growing Islamist tendencies in ex-Soviet Central Asia, where militants enjoy support from the Taliban and have worried Kazakhstan and neighboring Russia.

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) – Lush green fields hug a canal snaking through the dusty landscape of what was once Afghanistan’s breadbasket, feeding off water from a newly restored dam aimed at tarnishing the lure for farmers to cultivate poppy and help the Taliban.

More than thirty years of warfare and chaos, starting with the Soviet invasion in 1979, has gutted Afghanistan’s farms and food industry, destroying valleys that were once rich with pomegranates, wheat and grapes.

KABUL (Reuters) – Still haunted by its own disastrous war in Afghanistan, Russia is tiptoeing back into Kabul’s affairs ahead of a gradual withdrawal of NATO troops that could leave a dangerous power vacuum in what was once a traditional sphere of influence.

Moscow has refused to send troops to the war, which is becomingly increasingly unpopular as it drags into its 10th year, but it has backed drug raids, and increased support for NATO and local forces. It has also showed interest in business deals as it vies to boost its clout in Afghanistan.

RUZA, Russia (Reuters) – Violence will erupt in Afghanistan once NATO-led forces complete their planned pullout, repeating the aftermath following the Soviet exit, the head of Russia’s Union of Afghan Veterans said in an interview.

Moscow is still haunted by its own disastrous, decade-long war in Afghanistan, where some 15,000 Soviet soldiers died fighting mujahideen insurgents before pulling out in 1989.

KABUL (Reuters) – Still haunted by its own disastrous war in Afghanistan, Russia is tiptoeing back into Kabul’s affairs ahead of a gradual withdrawal of NATO troops that could leave a dangerous power vacuum in what was once a traditional sphere of influence.

Moscow has refused to send troops to the war, which is becomingly increasingly unpopular as it drags into its 10th year, but it has backed drug raids, and increased support for NATO and local forces. It has also showed interest in business deals as it vies to boost its clout in Afghanistan.