The brother of Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Thursday dropped out of the country's election and endorsed Zalmai Rassoul, a move widely seen as signalling the current leader's prefered choice of successor.
A NATO airstrike in eastern Afghanistan on Thursday accidentally killed five Afghan soldiers, government officials said, while the coalition said it was investigating reports of the incident.
The next president of Afghanistan will sign a security pact with the United States despite the refusal of outgoing leader Hamid Karzai, Secretary of State John Kerry confidently predicted.
President Barack Obama told Hamid Karzai on Tuesday that he is now planning for a full US troop withdrawal because of the Afghan leader's repeated refusal to sign a security pact.
Afghanistan released 65 alleged Taliban fighters from jail on Thursday despite condemnation from the United States, which says the men could return to the battlefield to launch strikes against NATO and Afghan forces.
Global leaders from politics, defence and diplomacy meet in Germany from Friday to discuss conflict hotspots and looming threats, from Syria and Afghanistan to East Asia and Africa.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai suspects the United States may have backed insurgent-style attacks to undermine his government but has no evidence to support his theory.
Barack Obama insisted Monday he had faith in the Afghan war mission after former Pentagon chief Robert Gates charged the president lacked passion for military action and soured on his own troop surge.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Friday condemned US troops for killing a four-year-old boy in the southern province of Helmand, in a fresh strain to troubled relations between Washington and Kabul.
Former defense secretary Robert Gates has delivered a scathing critique of President Barack Obama's handling of the war in Afghanistan in a revealing new memoir, US media reported Tuesday.
Six Taliban suicide attackers launched an assault on a joint Afghan-NATO base in the east of Afghanistan on Saturday, killing one NATO soldier during a prolonged firefight, officials said.
Two rockets exploded in Kabul on Wednesday morning, causing no reported casualties but underlining Afghanistan's continuing security problems as many foreigners in the capital marked Christmas Day.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai said he would not be bullied into signing a security pact to allow US troops to stay on after next year, as he tried to persuade India Friday to provide more military assistance.
Hollywood has immortalized for post-Christmas release one of the deadliest incidents of the Afghan war: a Navy SEAL operation targeting a Islamist fighter that left 19 American soldiers dead.