The American troop surge in Iraq was effectively declared over on Saturday, when officials announced that 5 000 soldiers will this week begin pulling out in response to declining violence. A United States military spokesperson said the withdrawal of a brigade combat team comes after the fall in attacks across Iraq.
Former Chadian rebels waiting to join the national army have left their eastern bases to make for the Sudanese border, their former chief told international French radio station RFI. ”They are unhappy for several reasons … These are fairly complex problems, fairly serious. I understand them,” he said.
A suicide bomber killed 28 Afghan troops and two civilians on Saturday in an attack on an army bus in Kabul, the Afghan president said. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, the deadliest in the Afghan capital since the hard-line Islamist movement was ousted from power for harbouring al-Qaeda leaders.
