KABUL (Reuters) – U.S. Defence Secretary Leon Panetta told troops in Afghanistan on Wednesday that the massacre of 16 Afghan civilians by an American soldier must not deter them from their mission to secure the country ahead of a 2014 NATO withdrawal deadline.

Despite calls from local residents for him to be tried in Afghanistan, the U.S. staff sergeant who killed the villagers on Sunday has been flown out of Afghanistan, the Pentagon said.

BASTION AIRFIELD, Afghanistan (Reuters) – An Afghan man driving a stolen pickup truck sped onto a runway ramp at an air base in southern Afghanistan and then emerged from the vehicle ablaze at around the time U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta was arriving aboard a military plane, U.S. officials said.

The Pentagon chief, making an unannounced visit at a time of high tensions after a U.S. soldier massacred 16 Afghan villagers on Sunday, was not hurt in the incident at Bastion Airfield, a British base, and continued on with his schedule of events.

CAMP LEATHERNECK, Afghanistan (Reuters) – U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta arrived in Afghanistan on an unannounced visit on Wednesday, as the United States tried to contain fallout from a massacre of 16 Afghan civilians by an American soldier.

A motorcycle bomb went off in Kandahar city in southern Afghanistan, killing an Afghan intelligence soldier and wounding two, as well as a civilian, while a roadside bomb killed 8 civilians in neighbouring Helmand province, officials said, as Panetta kicked off a two-day trip by visiting troops.

CAMP LEATHERNECK, Afghanistan (Reuters) – U.S. Defence Secretary Leon Panetta arrived in Afghanistan on an unannounced visit on Wednesday, as the United States tried to contain fallout from a massacre of 16 Afghan civilians by an American soldier.

A motorcycle bomb went off in Kandahar city in southern Afghanistan, killing an Afghan intelligence officer and wounding three people, a local government spokesman said, as Panetta kicked off his two-day trip in neighbouring Helmand province.

CAMP LEATHERNECK, Afghanistan (Reuters) – Defense Secretary Leon Panetta arrived in Afghanistan on an unannounced visit on Wednesday, as the United States tried to contain fallout from a massacre of 16 Afghan civilians by an American soldier.

A motorcycle bomb went off in Kandahar city in southern Afghanistan, killing an Afghan intelligence officer and wounding three people, a local government spokesman said, as Panetta kicked off his two-day trip in neighboring Helmand province.

BASTION AIRFIELD, Afghanistan (Reuters) – Defense Secretary Leon Panetta arrived in Afghanistan on an unannounced visit on Wednesday, as the United States tries to contain fallout from a massacre of 16 Afghan civilians by an American soldier.

Panetta’s two-day trip had been scheduled before Sunday’s shootings, but it takes on new meaning as political pressure mounts on Afghan and U.S. officials over the unpopular war, now dragging into its eleventh year.

BASTION AIRFIELD, Afghanistan (Reuters) – U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta arrived in Afghanistan on an unannounced visit on Wednesday, as the United States tries to contain fallout from a massacre of 16 Afghan civilians by an American soldier.

Panetta’s two-day trip had been scheduled before Sunday’s shootings, but it takes on new meaning as political pressure mounts on Afghan and U.S. officials over the unpopular war, now dragging into its eleventh year.

BISHKEK (Reuters) – Defense Secretary Leon Panetta sounded out the government of Kyrgyzstan on Tuesday over the future of an important air base that the Central Asian country’s president wants the U.S. military to vacate when its lease expires in 2014, U.S. officials said.

The United States uses the Manas transit center as a gateway for troops heading to Afghanistan and to stage aerial refueling. The base is adjacent to Kyrgyzstan’s main international airport, also called Manas, just outside the capital of Bishkek.

MILITARY AIRCRAFT (Reuters) – Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said on Monday that the death penalty could be sought over the massacre of 16 villagers in Afghanistan, which U.S. officials said they believe was the work of a rogue American soldier.

The shooting spree in the southern province of Kandahar, which killed mostly women and children, has triggered angry calls from Afghans for an immediate American exit from the country, as Washington tries to negotiate a long-term presence to keep it from sliding into chaos again.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Partial remains from some people killed in the September 11 attacks in 2001 ended up in a landfill, according to a Pentagon-commissioned report released on Tuesday that revealed previously undisclosed blunders at the U.S. military’s main mortuary.

The unidentified remains came from two of the three sites of the September 11 attacks: the Pentagon and the Shanksville, Pennsylvania crash site of one of the hijacked airliners. The World Trade Center in New York City, which was leveled in the attacks, was not cited.