afghanistan

Honoring the fallen on a Google Earth map

Each Memorial Day we honor the men and women in uniform who have paid the ultimate price for the freedom we enjoy. Traditionally, this is the day many people visit cemeteries and memorials, especially the Arlington National Cemetery. But not all of us can do that. This year there's an alternative.

Sean Askay, a Google engineer, released on Sunday a Google Earth layer, called Map the Fallen, that contains detailed information of more than 5,700 service members who died in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars. This is an interactive tool that lets you see photos, learn about how … Read more

Taliban: Nix nighttime cell phone service

Hang up, or else. That's the Taliban's message to cell phone companies operating in Afghanistan, whom it suspects of collaborating with NATO to track down its forces.

The displaced theocrats have given the four mobile phone operators in Afghanistan three days to shut down at night--roughly 14 hours a day--or face attacks against their offices and towers, according to Reuters.

The Taliban is convinced the Americans are using mobile phone signals to track down its remaining troops. "Since the occupying forces stationed in Afghanistan usually at night use mobile phones for espionage to track down the mujahideen, … Read more

Afghan sentenced to death after sharing Web printouts

A 23-year-old Afghani journalism student is facing a death sentence in his home country for distributing articles allegedly critical of Islam that he had printed from a Web site, according to various news reports.

The decision was handed down Tuesday by a three-judge panel in Kabul, Afghanistan after a secret, closed-door trial at which the student, Sayed Perwiz Kambakhsh, reportedly had no lawyer. Kambakhsh, who has been jailed since October, plans to appeal the latest ruling.

Although there are some variations in news reports about what exactly the printed-out content discussed, it seems to be well-established that Kambakhsh himself did … Read more

'Hunter-killer' drone hits Afghan target

A next-generation unmanned aerial vehicle piloted from Nevada has fired a weapon in Afghanistan in its first-ever strike on enemy combatants.

The MQ-9 Reaper on Saturday launched a Hellfire missile in a location known as Deh Rawod. The strike, the Air Force reports with great understatement, was successful.

A bigger, more heavily armed follow-on to the Predator UAV, the Reaper has been flying missions in Afghanistan since the last week of September. Until this weekend, however, it had been limited to its secondary role as a tool for surveillance and reconnaissance. With the missile-firing sortie, it has now lived up … Read more