DefenceTalkThe US Army has launched an investigation into why Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl went missing and was later captured by Afghan insurgents in 2009, officials said Monday. The 28-year-old soldier is currently undergoing medical treatment and counseling at a military hospital in San Antonio, Texas after his May 31 release as part of a controversial swap […]https://www.defencetalk.com/us-army-opens-probe-into-ex-pow-bergdahls-disappearance-59936/

DefenceTalkPakistan on Monday launched fresh air strikes on the northwest tribal region where it has deployed up to 30,000 troops in a long-awaited offensive to eliminate Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants from their border stronghold. The action in North Waziristan was launched a week after a brazen insurgent attack on Pakistan’s main airport in Karachi which […]https://www.defencetalk.com/pakistan-deploys-troops-jets-in-anti-militant-offensive-59894/

DefenceTalkPresident Barack Obama today announced the United States plans to keep nearly 10,000 American troops in Afghanistan next year — a level largely in line with what U.S. commanders had requested — and that nearly all U.S. forces will leave the country by the end of 2016, bringing to an end a U.S. military mission […]https://www.defencetalk.com/us-to-keep-nearly-10000-troops-in-afghanistan-in-2015-59716/

DefenceTalkPrecision military air strikes on Wednesday killed at least 32 militants including key commanders in a restive Pakistani tribal region near the Afghan border, officials said. “Confirmed militant hideouts were targeted early morning today in North Waziristan through precise aerial strikes,” a senior security official told AFP. He added, “there are reports of 32 terrorists […]https://www.defencetalk.com/pakistan-air-strikes-kill-32-militants-59683/

DefenceTalkA British sniper killed five Taliban insurgents and a would-be suicide bomber in Afghanistan with one bullet, the Ministry of Defence has said. The 20-year-old marksman, a lance corporal in the Coldstream Guards, hit the trigger switch of the device from 930 yards away, causing the bomb to explode. The blast killed the would-be bomber […]https://www.defencetalk.com/single-snipers-bullet-kills-six-taliban-fighters-59195/

DefenceTalkThousands of people rallied in Pakistan’s eastern city of Lahore Sunday in protest at continued US drone strikes in the country’s troubled northwest. Around 5,000 protesters chanted anti-US slogans and called for an immediate end to the drone strikes at the rally organized by the Defence of Pakistan Council (DPC), a coalition of around 40 […]https://www.defencetalk.com/thousands-rally-in-pakistan-against-us-drone-attacks-49784/

DefenceTalkAfter four days of debate, an overwhelming majority of Afghanistan’s Loya Jirga voted to endorse allowing US troops to stay in the country after the end of the NATO mission there in 2014. The security agreement required for such a move calls for some 18,000 US troops to remain in Afghanistan to continue training and […]https://www.defencetalk.com/us-afghan-security-deal-covers-more-than-military-cooperation-49737/

DefenceTalkPakistan will not allow the death of Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud in a US drone strike to derail proposed peace talks, the information minister said Saturday. Pervez Rasheed told reporters the government wanted to press ahead with its plan to negotiate with Mehsud’s Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). “We can say that this time drone struck the […]https://www.defencetalk.com/pakistan-will-not-let-death-of-ttp-leader-derail-talks-minister-49546/

DefenceTalkA US envoy said Monday that Washington still hoped to talk directly with the Taliban to support an Afghan peace deal but that the militants seemed unwilling to do so. The Taliban opened an office in the Qatari capital Doha in June aimed at talking to the United States ahead of next year’s withdrawal of […]https://www.defencetalk.com/us-still-hopes-for-taliban-talks-envoy-49069/

DefenceTalkGermany has started withdrawing its soldiers and material from Afghanistan. The move poses a great logistical challenge and will also be expensive. Despite the Bundeswehr’s experience in overseas assignments, getting its equipment out of Afghanistan will prove to be an unprecedented logistical challenge. According to information provided by the German military, it will have to […]https://www.defencetalk.com/germany-starts-moving-equipment-out-of-afghanistan-48626/