Afghanistan War News Updates -- October 5, 2015

The Diplomat: Afghanistan Struggles to Contain the Taliban

The fall of Kunduz last week underscores the difficulties the Afghan National Army is having on its own.

The war in Afghanistan, nearly fourteen years in the making, is by the far the longest U.S. military engagement in the nation’s history. The campaign against the Afghan Taliban, Al-Qaeda, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, and the Haqqani Network will outlast two U.S. presidential administrations and is very likely to continue even after the U.S. and the NATO coalition withdraw the remainder of their troops, due by the end of 2016. And yet, despite hundreds of billions of dollars in wartime spending, several emergency supplemental bills passed by the U.S. Congress, 2,364 U.S. troops killed in action and tens of thousands of additional troops having sustained serious wartime injuries, Afghanistan is still very much a country at war.

Afghanistan War News Updates -- October 5, 2015

Explosion and gunfire heard capital Kabul -- Khaama Press
Calm returns to Kunduz, pressure mounts on U.S. over airstrike -- CBS
Afghan forces called for air strike in Kunduz: U.S. general -- Reuters
U.S. General Says Afghans Requested Airstrike That Hit Kunduz Hospital -- NYT
Afghan forces requested US airstrike that hit hospital -- AP
Civilians 'accidentally struck' in Afghan hospital bombing, U.S. commander says -- CNN
Taliban push on, seizing strategic hubs & key roads across Afghanistan -- RT
Afghanistan’s Ghani Treads With Caution As Pressure Mounts Over Kunduz Hospital Bombing -- Nikhil Kumar, Time
Taliban commanders at Kunduz were once jailed by Pakistan -- Miami Herald/McClatchy News
General Raziq: Taliban plan to shift Quetta Shura to Helmand -- Khaama Press
Obama considering plan to leave significant force in Afghanistan -- Washington Post
Germany wants to extend Afghanistan mission by one year: newspaper -- Reuters
Doctors Without Borders Leaves Kunduz, Afghanistan After Deadly Airstrike -- NBC
Aid agencies withdraw from Afghanistan’s north -- IRIN
‘Everybody is leaving Afghanistan:’ Refugees flee increasing violence -- Al Jazeera
Taliban in Kunduz, ISIS in Nangarhar: Fiefdoms of Conflict in Afghanistan -- The Diplomat
For Kunduz read Kandahar, as Taliban seeks to outflank Ghani -- Tom Hussain, The National
What America Thinks: Is It Time to End the War in Afghanistan? -- Ramussen Reports