Updated at 8:10 a.m. ET: KABUL, Afghanistan -- Four rockets hit Afghanistan's Bagram airfield, destroying a helicopter belonging to the NATO-led forces and killing three Afghan personnel inside, a spokesman for the coalition said Tuesday.

The attack, which took place at around 10 p.m. local time on Monday (1:30 p.m. ET Monday), came on the eve of the 11th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States. Security across the capital, Kabul, was intensified.

Two personnel belonging to NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), who were also in the helicopter, were wounded, the spokesman said.

The helicopter, which was on a ramp in the airfield when the rockets hit, was destroyed by the ensuing fire, an ISAF official told NBC News.

The Taliban, in a text message to Reuters, claimed responsibility for the attack, saying they had fired rockets at the helicopter, which was on a ramp in the airfield. 

Meanwhile, in the western province of Herat, a suicide attack on a meeting of village elders killed at least seven people and wounded six others, the local police chief’s office told NBC News.

Recent weeks have seen intensified violence across Afghanistan. This week's attacks come days after a young teenager detonated explosives near the heavily barricaded NATO headquarters in Kabul, killing six civilians including children.

That attack followed a suicide bombing of a funeral in eastern Nangarhar province, which killed at least 25.

Despite the presence of hundreds of thousands of Afghan and foreign troops fighting the Taliban-led insurgency, violence is at its worst since the Islamists were toppled by Afghan and U.S. forces in late 2001, five years after they took power.

Politics on the side? US marks 11th anniversary of Sept. 11 attacks

The United Nations says the Taliban are responsible for 80 percent of civilian casualties in the conflict.

Slideshow: Afghanistan: Nation at a crossroads

Hoshang Hashimi / AP

More than ten years after the beginning of the war, Afghanistan faces external pressure to reform as well as ongoing internal conflicts.

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Bagram handover
The Bagram attack came hours after the United States handed control of the controversial giant prison located at at the air base and its 3,000 suspected Taliban inmates to Afghan authorities.

"Today is a historical and glorious day for Afghanistan where Afghans are able to take charge of the prison themselves," acting Defense Minister Enayatullah Nazari told a large crowd, including U.S. military officials, on Monday.

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But in a move that has angered the Afghan government, the United States plans to keep at least one block at the prison, where any suspected Taliban fighters or terrorists captured in future raids will be held before being handed over.

Since the agreement on the handover was signed in March, a further 600 people have been jailed at Bagram. The United States has no time frame on when these new prisoners will be handed over, and how long they plan to keep future captives.

US: Records for $475M in Afghan fuel buys missing

The United States is also keeping another roughly 30 of the original group of detainees, amid concerns that Kabul might process them out instead of keeping them behind bars, as stipulated in the transfer agreement.

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Monday he spoke with Afghan President Hamid Karzai about the need to "continue to detain those that are a threat to their country," pursuant to the handover agreement.

9/11 memorial to cost $60 million a year to operate

"I expressed to him that it was important to celebrate this day that we are transferring authority of a large number of prisoners to the Afghan government. It's an important step," he said. "We want to make sure that they in every way abide by the agreements that we work out with them."

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Afghan officials maintain that detention without trial is illegal under Afghan law. Karzai's spokesman, Aimal Faizi, declined to comment on the possibility of detention without trial happening anyway, simply saying: "We are against detainees not being processed by Afghan law."

NBC News' Atia Abawi and Reuters contributed to this report.

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Rizwan Tabassum / AFP - Getty Images, file

Drivers stand on top of a fuel tanker used to transport fuel to NATO forces in Afghanistan in the Pakistani port city of Karachi on May 23.

WASHINGTON -- Investigators are probing reports of record-shredding by officials in the U.S.-led NATO command that trains the Afghan army after learning that records of fuel purchases for the Afghans totaling nearly $475 million are gone.

The training command has also not been tracking whether the fuel it delivers to the Afghan army is actually used or stored, leaving officials unable to determine whether any of it was stolen, said an interim report by the Special Inspector General for Afghan Reconstruction, or SIGAR.

John Sopko, appointed recently by President Barack Obama to the special inspector general's job, told Defense Secretary Leon Panetta in a letter on Monday that SIGAR was investigating the reported shredding by officials of the Combined Security Transition Command-Afghanistan, or CSTC-A.

Investigating waste, fraud and abuse
Sopko's office conducts criminal as well as civil investigations of waste, fraud and abuse relating to U.S.-funded reconstruction projects in Afghanistan. SIGAR was created in 2008.

During an audit of spending on fuel for the Afghan army, the CSTC-A command "informed us that its officials shredded all ANA (Afghan National Army) POL (petroleum, oil and lubricants) financial records related to payments totaling nearly $475 million from October 2006 to February 2011," Sopko wrote in a letter obtained by Reuters.

In addition, the training command could not provide over half the documents the inspector general's office requested for its audit covering March 2011 to March 2012, Sopko told Panetta.

NYT: Potential for a mining boom splits factions in Afghanistan

"The destruction of records and the unexplained failure to provide other records violate DOD (Department of Defense) and Department of the Army policies," Sopko said. He said a 2010 memo from the U.S. Army Central Command specifically instructed financial managers not to destroy documents related to the war.

"This matter has been referred to SIGAR investigations, and we would appreciate the continued cooperation of CSTC-A in our official investigation of the destruction of these records," Sopko said.

In a written response to Sopko's office, the training command noted steps it had taken to verify fuel purchases and deliveries, but did not comment on the reported document shredding.

PhotoBlog: Security key to transparent elections in Afghanistan in 2014

Sopko's office has done an interim report and plans to issue a fuller report on the fuel spending later this year.

Developing controls
The CSTC-A is a multinational command that works with the NATO Training Mission-Afghanistan to train and equip the Afghan security forces. The commanding general is U.S. Lt. Gen. Daniel Bolger, who was copied in on Sopko's letter to Panetta.

The training command pays for fuel needed to power the Afghan army's vehicles, generators and power plants. But it is preparing to hand over responsibility for logistics, including fuel, to the Afghan army on Jan. 1.

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Foreign forces are due to hand off security to Afghan forces by the end of 2014.

The United States, with help from international donors, will continue to pay for the Afghan army's fuel, however, and CSTC-A has proposed to increase spending on the Afghan army's fuel to $555 million a year starting in fiscal 2014, SIGAR said in its interim report. In the current fiscal year, about $480 million was spent, the report said.

Before handing over logistics responsibility to the Afghans and before committing to spend more money on fuel, the training command must develop better controls, the report said.

Slideshow: Afghanistan: Nation at a crossroads

Hoshang Hashimi / AP

More than ten years after the beginning of the war, Afghanistan faces external pressure to reform as well as ongoing internal conflicts.

Launch slideshow

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Reuters, file

Jalaluddin Haqqani (R), the Taliban's minister for tribal affairs, points to a map of Afghanistan while his son Naziruddin looks on in Islamabad in October, 2001. The Haqqani insurgent group is named after its patriarch and founder Jalaluddin Haqqani, who was a legendary anti-Soviet mujahideen commander in the 1980s. Back then he was admired by the Americans.

Senior members of the Haqqani network said that the United States' designation of the militant group as terrorists could endanger the life of an American soldier thought to be in their custody and jeopardize peace talks.

"The Obama administration and U.S. military commanders know that their soldier Bowe Bergdahl is in our possession," a Haqqani commander told NBC News in a telephone interview from an undisclosed location on Friday.  "He is in our custody, but his government failed to make any sincere effort for his release, and now this new development could add to his woes."

AFP - Getty Images

This image grab from an undated video reportedly posted on the internet by Afghan militants on Dec. 25, 2009, allegedly shows U.S. soldier Bowe Robert Bergdahl, who was captured in Afghanistan around six months previously.

The Haqqanis, a Pashtun tribe with strongholds in southeastern Afghanistan and across the border in Pakistan, have been blamed for an attack on the U.S. Embassy in Kabul and other high-profile assaults in Afghanistan.  The group is also believed to be holding U.S. Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who was captured in 2009 in Afghanistan’s Paktika province, bordering Pakistan’s South Waziristan.

Members of the network say Bergdahl was handed over to the Taliban when a delegation of senior Taliban leaders began peace talks with the U.S. in Qatar in exchange for the top five Taliban commanders from Guantanamo Bay. After those talks failed, the Taliban sources told NBC News that Bergdahl was returned to the Haqqani network.

Report: US offers Taliban more for captive soldier

On Friday, U.S. officials announced that the Obama administration would formally designate the Haqqani network as a foreign terrorist organization. The move was part of a complicated political decision as the U.S. withdraws from Afghanistan and pushes for a reconciliation pact to end more than a decade of warfare.  

But the move would only undermine the United States' efforts in the region, one of the Haqqani commanders told NBC News.

NYT: White House backs listing Haqqani militant group as terrorists, officials say

"How (will) their talks with the Taliban bring peace to Afghanistan when they declared us terrorists?" the commander, who asked to remain anonymous, said. "It would further increase their hardship and they should wait for more losses in the coming days." 

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton signed a report to Congress saying the network met criteria for a terrorist designation on Friday, State Department officials told reporters.  

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The Obama administration has been trying to coax Afghanistan's fighting groups into peace talks, offering the prospect of a Qatar-based political office for insurgents and even the transfer of several prisoners being held at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Negotiations have been dormant for months, and the Haqqanis have been among the least interested in talking.

Designation by the State Department as a foreign terrorist organization would bring sanctions such as criminal penalties for anyone providing material support to the group and seizure of any assets in the United States.

The Haqqani commanders also told NBC News that they were part of the mainstream Afghan Taliban headed by Mulla Mohammad Omar and declaring them as a terrorist group would make it worse for the United States and its allies in in Afghanistan.

"We are fighters of Islam Emirate of Afghanistan led by our supreme leader Mulla Mohammad Omar," a senior commander said. "Our aim is to expel all the occupying forces from Afghanistan and install a purely Islamic government there."

The Pentagon welcomed the designation of the group as a terrorist group.

"The Haqqani Network represents a significant threat to U.S. national security and we will continue our aggressive military action against this threat," said George Little, Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs, in a statement. "These new group designations will build on our efforts to degrade the Network's capacity to carry out attacks, including affecting fundraising abilities, targeting them with our military and intelligence resources, and pressing Pakistan to take action."

The United States accuses Pakistan's intelligence agency of supporting the Haqqani network and using it as a proxy in Afghanistan to gain leverage against the growing influence of its archrival, India.

Pakistan denies the allegations.

Photos: Pakistan -- A nation in turmoil

A senior Pakistani foreign ministry official, who asked to remain nameless because of the sensitivity of the issue, both denied claims that Pakistan was working with the network and dismissed the designation. 

"If we are sponsoring the Haqqanis, which we are not because they cause more problems for Pakistan than anyone else, then only will this new labeling equate to something," he told NBC News. "No responsible person has proven that we are directing them in any way. Obviously there are contacts, but the U.S. has contacts for the purposes of negotiations, etc. too with these guys."

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Updated at 6:20 a.m. ET: A bomb exploded in Damascus on Wednesday near a hotel used by United Nations monitors, Syrian state television reported.

The bomb, which was placed in a parking lot near the Dama Rose Hotel, blew up a fuel truck that sent clouds of black smoke into the sky above the capital. At least three people were reportedly injured.

A witness said the explosion had gone off at around 8.30 a.m. local time  (1:30 a.m. ET) and damaged a building opposite the hotel, but appeared not to have damaged the hotel itself. 

Syria's deputy foreign minister, Faisal Mekdad, said none of the observers had been wounded in the blast, state television said. "This was a criminal act aimed at distorting Syria's image," it quoted him as saying.

Bassem Tellawi / AP

Security officers investigate the scene after a bomb exploded outside a Damascus hotel popular with U.N. observers on Wednesday.

A spokesman for the Free Syrian Army told NBC News' Ayman Mohyeldin that the rebel forces were responsible for the attack, which was targeting military staff headquarters.  Plans for the attacks on a high-level meeting of the chiefs of the different military branches had been in the works for close to a month, the FSA spokesman said.

Photos: Explosion hits near Damascus hotel used by UN

The area is home to a club for army officers and a building belonging to the ruling Baath Party and is also not far from the army command.

The explosion occurred as U.N. humanitarian chief Valerie Amos was in the Syrian capital. However, her team is believed to be staying at a different hotel. 

Video from the site of Wednesday's explosion broadcast by El-Ikhbariya, a pro-government channel, showed firefighters hosing down a steaming fuel truck whose tank was blasted open near the hotel. A row of white U.N. vehicles parked nearby was covered in ash and dust.

'Violence is increasing'
The bombing follows a statement Monday by the head of the U.N. monitors blaming both forces supporting the government of President Bashar Assad and rebel fighters for ignoring the plight of civilians. 

"It is clear that violence is increasing in many parts of Syria," General Babacar Gaye, head of the U.N. Supervision Mission in Syria, told journalists in Damascus. 

Slideshow: The lives of Syrian rebels

NBC News

People resisting the army of President Bashar al-Assad in northern Syria cope with loss and prepare for fighting.

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"The indiscriminate use of heavy weapons by the government and targeted attacks by the opposition in urban centers are inflicting a heavy toll on innocent civilians. 

"I deeply regret that none of the parties has prioritized the needs of civilians." 

Eerie stillness in Aleppo as Syrian rebels pull back

Eighteen months of violence -- including alleged massacres by the regime -- has led to the deaths of more than 20,000, according to activists. 

Iran meddling?
Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Iran was building and training a militia to help Assad's regime battle the rebel fighters trying to topple him. 

The Iranian efforts, said Panetta, will only add to the killing going on in the country and "bolster a regime that we think ultimately is going to come down." 

Iran has accused the United States and its allies of similar intervention in Syria. 

Sitting alongside Panetta at a Pentagon news conference Tuesday, Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the militia, which is generally made up of Syrian Shiite forces, is being used to take the pressure off the Syrian regime forces. 

"Any army would be taxed with that kind of pace," Dempsey said. "They are having resupply problems, they are having morale problems, they are having the kind of wear and tear that would come of being in a fight for as long as they have." 

Will world inaction help al-Qaida gain foothold in Syria?

Dempsey also said that it appears Syrian rebels were able to shoot down a Syrian warplane but said he has seen no indication that they are armed with heavy weapons or surface-to-air missiles, at least not yet. 

He says the MiG fighter could have been shot down with small arms fire. Syria has blamed the crash on a technical malfunction, but Dempsey said the cause "didn't appear to be mechanical." 

Dempsey and Panetta voiced concerns about Iran's growing presence in Syria even as Assad's government steps up its aerial attacks against the rebel forces. Fierce fighting and attacks from warplanes and helicopter gunships have pushed the opposition forces back on key fronts, such as Aleppo. 

Slideshow: Syria uprising

Goran Tomasevic / Reuters

After months of protests and violent crackdowns, a look back at the violence that has overtaken the country.

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Asked about military options for intervention in Syria, Dempsey said the U.S. has been in discussions with Jordan and Turkey about the possible need for a safe zone because the two countries neighboring Syria are seeing an influx of refugees fleeing the fighting. 

US, Turkey explore no-fly zones over Syria

"And with a safe haven would probably come some form of no-fly zone, but we're not planning anything unilaterally," Dempsey said. 

Slideshow: Behind Syrian rebel lines

Machine guns operated by motorcycle brakes? Get a glimpse at the rebels fighting against Assad's forces in Syria's mountainous Jabal al-Zawiya area.

Launch slideshow

Panetta repeated assertions he made during an Associated Press interview Monday, saying that right now, creating a no-fly zone in the region "is not a front-burner issue" for the U.S. Instead, he said, the U.S. is focusing on providing humanitarian and nonlethal assistance and on ensuring the chemical and biological weapons in Syria are secure. 

A no-fly zone would be a militarily enforced area in which outside nations would prohibit Syrian warplanes from flying and attacking Syria's own people. 

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

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Updated at 11:32 a.m. ET: Fierce battles between government forces and opposition fighters in Syria’s commercial hub Aleppo have forced an estimated 200,000 civilians to flee the city, according to aid groups.

U.N. Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Valerie Amos, citing reports from the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, said Sunday that she was "extremely concerned by the impact of shelling and use of tanks and other heavy weapons on people in Aleppo."

"Life in Aleppo has become unbearable. I'm in my car and I'm leaving right now," a Syrian writer told The Associated Press as he got ready to drive away. "There's shelling night and day, every day," he said over the telephone on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

He painted a dire picture of daily life in the embattled city, torn between the government forces and those of the rebels.

"Bread, gasoline and gas are being sold on the black market at very high prices," he said. "Many things are in shortage."

The past two weeks have seen forces of President Bashar Assad struggle to maintain their grip on the country after a major rebel advance into the two main cities, Aleppo and Damascus, and a July 18 explosion that killed four top security officials.

Government forces have succeeded in imposing their grip on Damascus but rebel fighters gained control of parts of Aleppo, a city of 2.5 million people, where journalists have toured neighborhoods dotted with Free Syrian Army checkpoints flying black and white Islamist banners.

Since the rebel assault on Aleppo began a week ago, about 192 people have been killed, mostly civilians, according to the activist group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Some 19,000 people have died since the uprising began, the group says.

The battle for Aleppo, once a bastion of support for Assad's regime, is critical in the struggle for Syria's future. Rebels already control large sections of the neighboring Idlib province, which borders Turkey, and if a major metropolis fell to them it could possibly create the nucleus of some kind of "liberated" territory that could receive further support from the international community — much the way eastern Libya became a rebel sanctuary during the fight against Moammar Gadhafi last year.

Saudis mum on aid center for Syrian rebels

Yet Syria's rebels are still massively outgunned and it seems just a matter of time before Assad's massed forces outside the city crush them, much the way a similar rebel assault on Damascus over a week ago was quashed.

Civilians in need
Amos, of the United Nations, said the violence in the Aleppo region made it difficult for aid agencies to reach civilians in need.

"Many people have sought temporary shelter in schools and other public buildings in safer areas. They urgently need food, mattresses and blankets, hygiene supplies and drinking water," she said in a statement.

"I call on all parties to the fighting to ensure that they do not target civilians and that they allow humanitarian organizations safe access to bring urgent and life-saving help to people caught up in the fighting," Amos added.

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said attacks on Aleppo showed Assad lacked the legitimacy to rule.

"If they continue this kind of tragic attack on their own people in Aleppo, I think it ultimately will be a nail in Assad's own coffin," Panetta said, speaking to reporters at the start of a weeklong trip to the Middle East and North Africa.

Rebels dismayed over US statement on Syrian conflict

"What Assad has been doing to his own people and what he continues to do to his own people makes clear that his regime is coming to an end," he said, adding, "It's no longer a question of whether he's coming to an end, it's when."

Scenes of destruction in Aleppo
Fighting for the past several days has focused on the Salaheddine district in the southwest of Aleppo, where government troops have been backed by helicopter gunships.

Rebel fighters, patrolling opposition districts in flat-bed trucks flying green-white-and-black "independence" flags, said they were holding off Assad's forces in Salaheddine. However, the government said it had pushed them out.

"Complete control of Salaheddine has been (won back) from those mercenary gunmen," an unidentified military officer told Syrian state television late Sunday. "In a few days safety and security will return to the city of Aleppo."

Analysts: Syria 'armed to the teeth' with chemical weapons

Reuters journalists in the city were not able to approach the district after nightfall on Sunday to verify whether rebels had been pushed out. The Syrian Observatory for Human rights said fighting was continuing there.

The government also declared victory Sunday in the battle for the capital, which the rebels assaulted in force two weeks ago but have been repulsed in unprecedented fighting.

Cars entering one Aleppo district came under fire from snipers and a Reuters photographer saw three bodies lying in the street. Unable to move them to hospital for fear of shelling, residents had placed frozen water bottles on two of the corpses to slow their decomposition in the baking heat.

A burned-out tank lay in the street, while nearby another one had been captured intact and covered in tarpaulin. Burned cars could be seen in many streets, some marked with "shabbiha" - a reference to pro-Assad militiamen.

Syrian regime’s thugs face retribution

Near the center of town, most shops were shuttered, some with "Strike" painted over them. The only shop doing business was a bakery selling subsidized bread, where the line stretched around the block.

Syria's top diplomat in Britain defects
In London, the British Foreign Office said Monday that Syria's most senior diplomat in the country had defected.

Khaled al-Ayoubi, the embassy's charge d'affaires, told officials that he was not willing to represent Assad's regime any longer.

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"Mr. al-Ayoubi has told us that he is no longer willing to represent a regime that has committed such violent and oppressive acts against its own people," the Foreign Office said. "We urge others around Bashar Al-Assad to follow Mr. al-Ayoubi's example; to disassociate themselves from the crimes being committed against the Syrian people and to support a peaceful and free future for Syria."

Al-Ayoubi's departure represents the latest in a series of diplomatic and other defections from Assad's regime.

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Inida Ministry of Information & Broadcasting / via Getty Images

Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, left, attends a meeting with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the Prime Minister's office in New Delhi on Tuesday.

NEW DELHI -- Defense Secretary Leon Panetta will encourage India to take a more active role in Afghanistan as international forces draw down after a decade of war, U.S. officials said on Tuesday as the Pentagon chief arrived in New Delhi for two days of talks. 

"Secretary Panetta underscored the link India plays between East and West Asia and how the United States views India as a net provider of security from the Indian Ocean to Afghanistan and beyond," military newspaper Stars and Stripes quoted acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs George Little as saying.

Other officials, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, acknowledged that this shift could inflame tensions between India and Pakistan given the longstanding rivalry between the countries, but insisted that both countries had an interest in working with the international community to ensure stability in their northern neighbor. 

"There is a risk that the tensions and historical mistrust between India and Pakistan could lead them to view their respective roles in Afghanistan as being in conflict," one official said. "This is not predestined. This does not have to be the case." 

For years, India has focused on economic aid in Afghanistan, with an investment of about $2 billion, defense officials told Stars and Stripes on Tuesday.

Pool / Reuters

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is shown in Hanoi on Monday, before arriving in India.

But while The Pentagon welcomes more economic help, and, "doesn't necessarily envision a role of the Indian military in Afghanistan," the Indian military police could provide training for Afghan forces as they move forward, a senior defense official told the newspaper on background.

Pakistan wields considerable influence over neighboring Afghanistan, while India is already one of its biggest bilateral donors, having pledged about $2 billion since the 2001 U.S. led-invasion for projects from the construction of highways to the building of the Afghan parliament. 

But in October, India and Afghanistan signed a wide-ranging agreement to deepen ties, including to help train Afghan security forces, a deal that angered Pakistan. 

Earlier: Vietnam opens new sites for US MIA hunt

"India and Pakistan share an interest, the same interest that we have, of peace and stability in Afghanistan," the official said. "That makes Pakistan more peaceful and stable and it makes India a lot more stable." 

Their remarks came as Panetta flew to India as part of his week-long Asia tour to explain a new U.S. military strategy to allies and partners in the region. The strategy calls for a shift in U.S. focus to the Asia-Pacific region. 

Panetta announced on Saturday during a speech at the Shangri-La Dialogue, a security conference in Singapore, that the U.S. military would rebalance its military assets so that by the year 2020 60 percent of U.S. warships would be in the region, versus 50 percent now. 

The officials said the United States views India as a logical partner to work with on security and stability issues in the Indian Ocean region and that India was singled out for its importance in the new strategy. 

Suspicion 
Panetta is expected to elaborate on that theme during his meetings with senior defense and political leaders, as well as in a speech at a think tank on Wednesday. 

India has a long history of involvement in the country and its activities have often been viewed suspiciously by Pakistan, which is concerned about being diplomatically encircled by its longtime enemy. 

India has trained Afghan army and police over the past decade, but on a relatively small scale, the U.S. officials said. It has also increasingly helped Afghanistan with its economic reconstruction, the officials said. 

"As we look to the future development of peace and stability in Afghanistan ... we know that the regional actors, Afghanistan's neighbors and extended neighbors like India will play a greater role," one official said. 

"That's historically been the case in Afghanistan and that's going to be the case again. And we welcome that." 

The official said the United States would like to see "all of the neighbors, including Pakistan and India, harmonize their approaches because they do share an interest in peace and stability in Afghanistan." 

The two sides will also discuss their military cooperation, including weapons and training needs. 

"We believe that it's very important, again, to help India modernize its capabilities and develop its military capabilities so it can be a net provider of security in the region and internationally," the official said. 

The United States is keen to get a bigger slice of India's defense acquisitions, and is negotiating to sell it about a dozen Apache helicopters along with other weapons. 

Reuters and msnbc.com staff contributed to this report.

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Pool / Getty Images

U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and Vietnam Minister of Defense Phung Quang Thanh at an arrival ceremony in Hanoi on Monday.

HANOI, Vietnam -- The search for U.S. servicemen missing from the Vietnam War was given a boost Monday when the Vietnamese government told visiting U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta it would open three previously-closed sites to permit excavation for remains.

The announcement came as Panetta and Vietnam Defense Minister Phung Quang Thanh exchanged long-held artifacts collected during the war -- including letters written by a U.S. soldier who was killed that had been kept and used as propaganda, and a small maroon diary belonging to a Vietnamese soldier. A U.S. service member took the journal back to the U.S. 

Military officers briefing Panetta at the command's office said they had five to seven years to complete their excavation work in the previously restricted areas. The acidic soil in Vietnam erodes bones quickly, leaving in many cases only teeth for the military teams to use to try and identify service members, one of the team members said. 

'I will ever forget the bloody fight': GI's letters provide a glimpse at fog of war

In addition, many of the potential witnesses with information about remains are getting older and their memories are fading. 

There are about nearly 1,300 cases that are still unaccounted for, and officers briefing Panetta said about 600 of those remains could be recoverable. 

Ward said that opening the three new sites will enable the U.S. to try and find: 

• Two Air Force members who were lost when their plane was shot down in Quang Binh Province in central Vietnam in 1967. 
• An Army private first class who went missing when he was out with his unit on a search-and-destroy mission in 1968 in the tri-border area of Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. 
• A Marine who was on a surface-to-air combat mission and was lost when his plane went down in Quang Tri Province. Another Marine on the plane ejected and was rescued. 

Panetta visits Vietnam, exchanges soldiers effects

During the press briefing announcing the expansion, both said their countries want to work together, whether or not the expanded relationship bothers China. 

Beijing has expressed concern over America's new defense strategy that puts more focus on the Asia-Pacific region, including plans to increase the number of troops, ships and other military assets in the region. 

The United States is looking to expand military ties with Vietnam after they signed last year a memorandum of understanding on defense cooperation.

On Sunday, Panetta became the most senior U.S. official since the end of the Vietnam War to visit Cam Ranh Bay in central Vietnam, a U.S. logistics hub during the conflict. He visited a U.S. Navy cargo ship that was undergoing repairs at the Vietnamese port.

Speaking through an interpreter, Thanh said Vietnam wants to continue defense cooperation with all countries, including stable and longstanding relationships with China and the United States. Hanoi, he said, would not sacrifice relations with one country for another. 

Panetta said the U.S. goal is to help strengthen the capabilities of countries across the region. 

Panetta: Majority of US warships moving to Asia

"Frankly the most destabilizing situation would be if we had a group of weak nations and only the United States and China were major powers in this region," said Panetta. 

Document exchange
Also on Monday, defense officials reviewing the packet of documents given to Panetta said it appears there are three sets of letters, including a set from the soldier, U.S. Army Sgt. Steve Flaherty, who was from Columbia, S.C. It was not clear how many other service members' letters were there, but officials were going through them Monday. 

Pool / Reuters

The letters of U.S. Army Sgt. Steve Flaherty, who was killed during the Vietnam war in 1969, are seen on a table at the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command in Hanoi on Monday.

Officials said this is the first time such a joint exchange of war artifacts has occurred. The two defense leaders agreed to return the papers to the families of the deceased soldiers. 

Ron Ward, U.S. casualty resolution specialist at the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command in Hanoi, said there are at least four U.S. troops believed to be lost in the three areas that were opened by the Vietnamese Monday. With those three areas now open, Ward said there are now just eight sites left that are still restricted by the Vietnamese. 

Flaherty, who was with the 101st Airborne, was killed in the northern section of South Vietnam in March 1969. According to defense officials, Vietnamese forces took his letters and used them in broadcasts during the war. 

Vietnam's 'napalm girl' comes to terms with iconic photo

Vietnamese Col. Nguyen Phu Dat kept the letters, but it was not until last August, when he mentioned them in an online publication, that they started to come to light. 

Early this year, Robert Destatte, a retired Defense Department employee who had worked for the POW/MIA office, noticed the online publication, and the Pentagon began to work to get the letters back to Flaherty's family. 

Pool / Reuters

A picture sits next to a diary that belonged to Vietnamese soldier Vu Dinh Doan, which was originally taken from Doan's body by U.S. Marine Robert Frazure following Operation Indiana in 1966.

The small diary belonged to Vu Dinh Doan, a Vietnamese soldier who was found killed in a machine gun fight, according to defense officials. Officials said that a Marine, Robert "Ira" Frazure of Walla Walla, Wash., saw the diary — with a photo and some money inside — on the chest of the dead soldier and took it back to the U.S. 

The diary came to light earlier this year when the sister of a friend of Frazure's was doing research for a book and Frazure asked her help in returning the diary. The sister, Marge Scooter, brought the diary to the PBS television program History Detectives. 
The show then asked the Defense and State departments to help return the diary.

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

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The letter from the frontlines could have been written yesterday.

"Thank you for your sweet card. It made my miserable day a much better one but I don't think I will ever forget the bloody fight we are having," reads a handwritten note to Betty from Steve Flaherty of Columbia, S.C. "RPG rockets and machine guns really tore my rucksack."

But this and other newly discovered letters written to "Betty," "Mother" and "Mrs. Wyatt" weren't sent from Afghanistan, or any other place where American servicemen are deployed now.  They were penned more than 40 years ago before the author, who was with the 101st Airborne, was killed in the northern section of South Vietnam.

The documents were given to the U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta during a landmark meeting in Vietnam on Monday. Panetta and Vietnam Defense Minister Phung Quang Thanh exchanged long-held artifacts collected during the war -- including a small maroon diary belonging to a Vietnamese soldier.

Vietnam opens new sites for US MIA hunt

A letter to Flaherty's mother gives an unvarnished version of life on the battlefield. 

"Our platoon started off with 35 men but winded up with 19 men when it was over. We lost platoon leader and whole squad.” He added, “The NVA soldiers fought until they died and one even booby trapped himself and when we approached him, he blew himself up and took two of our men with him.”

Vietnam's 'napalm girl' comes to terms with iconic photo

The obit of Steve Flaherty of Columbia, S.C. published in the State Newspaper on March 30, 1969.

Another letter to his mom reads: "We couldn't retrieve the bodies of our men or ruck sacks and when we brought air strikes, jets dropped napalm and explosives that destroyed everything that was there."

The letter adds: "If Dad calls, tell him I got too close to being dead but I'm O.K. I was real lucky. I'll write again soon."

Slain soldier’s Vietnam letters too later for his parents, but other relatives will cherish

A third letter to Mrs. Wyatt defends the war while spelling out the toll it was taking on the people fighting: "This is a dirty and cruel war but I’m sure people will understand the purpose of this war even though many of us might not agree."

According to U.S. defense officials, Vietnamese forces took Flaherty's letters after his death in March, 1969, and used them in broadcasts during the war.

Vietnamese Col. Nguyen Phu Dat kept the letters, but it was not until last August, when he mentioned them in an online publication, that they started to come to light.

Panetta visits Vietnam, exchanges soldiers effects

Early this year, Robert Destatte, a retired Defense Department employee who had worked for the POW/MIA office, noticed the online publication, and the Pentagon began to work to get the letters back to Flaherty's family.

The exchange of documents underscores how much the relationship between Vietnam and the United States has changed in 17 years since the normalization of diplomatic relations, George Little, acting assistant secretary of defense for public affairs, told military newspaper Stars and Stripes.

"It is a reflection of the priority the United States places on people-to-people ties with Vietnam," the newspaper quoted Little as saying. 

Reuters contributed to this report. 

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In a highly unusual move, around 200 U.S. Marines were asked to leave their weapons outside the tent where U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta was set to speak during his trip to Afghanistan on Wednesday.

Although the military said the order was not given in response to Sunday's shooting of 16 Afghan civilians allegedly by an American soldier, it possibly underlined how high tensions were running after the incident.

"You've got one of the most important people in the world in the room," Maj. Gen. Mark Gurganus told reporters at Camp Leatherneck, dismissing concerns related to the shooting. "This is not a big deal."

He said he had given the order because the two dozen Afghan soldiers also there were unarmed and he did not want to treat them differently.

Chris Turner / Pool

Troops stacking guns at Camp Leatherneck, Afghanistan before the arrival of U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta on Wednesday.

Among those killed Sunday were nine children, and some of the bodies were reportedly burned. The suspect, who hasn't been named, is in U.S. custody.

According to reporters at Camp Leatherneck, the Marines were waiting to hear Panetta's speech when they were abruptly told by their commander to get up, leave their weapons, including M16 and M-4 automatic rifles and 9 mm pistols, outside and return unarmed.

"All I know is I was told to get the weapons out," Sergeant Major Brandon Hall told The New York Times. Asked why, he replied, "Somebody got itchy, that's all I've got to say. Somebody got itchy; we just adjust."

Hall said he was acting on orders from superiors, the Times reported.

'Sends the wrong message'
Military officials in Washington told NBC News' chief Pentagon correspondent Jim Miklaszewski that the decision to disarm the Marines was indeed significant.

Panetta: Village massacre won't deter US mission

"It sends the wrong message" that Marines can't be trusted in the presence of the secretary of defense," one told him.

According to one official the decision was "stupid."

Miklaszewski also told NBC's Chuck Todd Wednesday that the move was "highly unusual" and that Marines in combat zones are always supposed to have weapons within their reach.

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Updated at 12:45 p.m., ET: WASHINGTON -- A 30,000-pound bunker buster bomb designed to smash through some 200 feet of concrete before exploding is a "great weapon" that could be used by U.S. forces in a clash with Iran over its nuclear program, an Air Force general said on Thursday.

Israel stepped in line, asking the United States for the advanced bombs and refueling planes that could aid an Israeli strike on Tehran's underground nuclear sites, an Israeli official told Reuters on Thursday. 

"Such a request was made" around the time of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to Washington this week, the official said, confirming media reports.

But the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity given the sensitivity of the issue, played down as "unrealistic" reports that the United States would condition supplying the hardware on Israel promising not to attack Iran this year.

Netanyahu told President Barack Obama at a White House meeting on Monday that Israel had not yet decided on military action against Iran, sources close to the talks said.

'A great weapon'
Serious talk of the buster bomb surfaced on Thursday after a high-raking military official described the bomb, designed to smash through some 200 feet of concrete before exploding, as a "great weapon” and could be used by U.S. forces in a clash with Tehran over its nuclear program.

Lieutenant General Herbert Carlisle, Air Force deputy chief of staff for operations, said the massive ordnance penetrator, which the military began receiving only last year, is part of the U.S. arsenal available for strikes against countries like Iran, which has some buried nuclear facilities.

"The massive ordnance penetrator is a great weapon. We are continuing to improve that. It has great capability now and we are continuing to make it better. It is part of our arsenal and it will be a potential if we need it in that kind of scenario," Carlisle told a conference on U.S. defense programs.

The Pentagon has begun working on military options if sanctions and diplomacy fail to prevent Tehran from building a nuclear weapon.

World powers to Iran: Open Parchin military site to IAEA inspectors

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told the National Journal in an interview on Thursday that planning had been going on "for a long time."

Major powers are increasingly concerned about Iran's nuclear enrichment program, which they view as an attempt to build an atomic weapon. But Tehran says it is meant for peaceful energy production.

Israel holding off?
Israel is worried about potential for Iran to acquire nuclear weapons. Netanyahu said during his Washington visit that time was running out for diplomacy and sanctions.

Nevertheless, Netanyahu reportedly is willing to wait at least a few weeks to let sanctions work.

"I am not standing with a stopwatch in hand. It is not a matter days or weeks, but also not a matter of years. Everybody understands this," Netanyahu told an news program in Israel according to Britain's Telegraph newspaper.

"We would be happy if this thing is resolved peacefully, if Iran decides to stop its nuclear program," he said according to the Telegraph. "To stop it, to dismantle its facility in Qom, and to stop enriching uranium. I will be most happy, I think all Israel's citizens will also be happy."

Panetta, who has said diplomacy and sanctions should be given more time, told the National Journal he did not think Israel had decided whether to order a high-risk raid on Iran's nuclear sites.

He said the United States was committed to preventing Iran from acquiring atomic weapons and would have a greater impact than Israel if it decided force was necessary.

"If they decided to do it there's no question that it would have an impact, but I think it's also clear that if the United States did it we would have a hell of a bigger impact," Panetta said.

The tough rhetoric from the Pentagon came despite President Barack Obama's effort this week to tamp down "loose talk" and "bluster" about possible military action, saying there was still an opportunity for diplomacy.

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