KABUL/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Next week’s Bonn conference on Afghanistan was supposed to offer a chance to renew Western commitment to stabilize the Asian nation as foreign troops head home after a decade battling the Taliban.

Instead it looks set to be a high-profile reminder of the West’s tortuous ties with a country where they have spent billions of dollars, and of Afghanistan’s uncertain future as NATO nations facing economic crisis at home try to pull loose from a costly war some believe can no longer be won outright.

KABUL/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Next week’s Bonn conference on Afghanistan was supposed to offer a chance to renew Western commitment to stabilize the Asian nation as foreign troops head home after a decade battling the Taliban.

Instead it looks set to be a high-profile reminder of the West’s tortuous ties with a country where they have spent billions of dollars, and of Afghanistan’s uncertain future as NATO nations facing economic crisis at home try to pull loose from a costly war some believe can no longer be won outright.

KABUL/LAHORE, Pakistan (Reuters) – Pakistan pulled out of an international conference on the future of Afghanistan on Tuesday, its latest angry riposte after a cross-border attack by NATO that killed 24 of its soldiers and plunged the conflict-plagued region deeper into crisis.

Islamabad’s decision to boycott next week’s meeting in the German city of Bonn on securing peace after NATO combat troops leave Afghanistan in 2014 means a key player that can lean on Taliban militants to join the process will be absent.

ISLAMABAD/KABUL (Reuters) – Fury spread in Pakistan on Sunday over a NATO cross-border air attack that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers and could undermine the U.S. effort to wind up the war in Afghanistan.

On Sunday night in Pakistan, more than 40 hours after the incident, many questions remained.

KABUL (Reuters) – NATO helicopters attacked a military checkpoint in northwest Pakistan on Saturday, killing up to 28 troops and prompting Pakistan to shut the vital supply route for NATO troops fighting in Afghanistan, Pakistani officials said.

NATO supply trucks and fuel tankers bound for Afghanistan were halted at Jamrud town in the Khyber tribal region near the city of Peshawar hours after the raid, officials said.