• Afghan president orders US forces out of key province

    NBC's Jim Miklaszewski joins Lester Holt to discuss the latest on Afghan President Hamid Karzai order that U.S. forces be removed from Wardak province over allegations of torture and disappearances.

    Ahmad Jamshid / AP, file

    Afghan President Hamid Karzai addesses military officers in Kabul, Afghanistan, Saturday, Feb. 16, 2013

    By Hasani Gittens, News Editor, NBC News

    Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai has ordered that all U.S. special forces must leave Wardak province, just west of Kabul, within two weeks — citing allegations of disappearances and torture.

    In a statement Sunday, a spokesman for Karzai said, "after a thorough discussion, it became clear that armed individuals named as U.S. special force stationed in Wardak province engage in harassing, annoying, torturing and even murdering innocent people."

    Karzai's office cited a "recent example" in which nine people allegedly "disappeared" and a separate incident where a student was taken from his home in the middle of the night and whose tortured body was found two days later under a bridge with his throat cut.

    U.S. defense officials strongly deny that military personnel condoned, or were involved in, any kidnappings, torture or murders of Afghan civilians or suspects.

    In addition to demanding the U.S. pull out in two weeks, Karzai also demanded the immediate cessation of all international special forces operations in Wardak.

    Military officials told NBC News that Karzai's order came as a total surprise. The province is one of the hottest combat zones in Afghanistan and is a strategically important area because it is seen as the gateway the Taliban uses to carry out attacks in Kabul, the war-torn nation's capital.


    In response, International Security Assistance Force, which coordinates the multinational coalition in Afghanistan, said "the U.S. Forces Afghanistan is aware of the reporting of presidential spokesman Aimal Faizi's comments today. We take all allegations of misconduct seriously and go to great lengths to determine the facts surrounding them."

    The ISAF declined to comment further until they've "had a chance to speak with" senior officials in the Afghan government.

    In their statement, the Afghan government noted that "Americans reject having conducted any such operation," but also noted "that such actions have caused local public resentment and hatred."

    President Barack Obama announced during his State of the Union address earlier this month that 34,000 American troops --  about half of the total U.S. force in Afghanistan -- will leave the country by the end of this year.

    NBC's Jim Miklaszewski and Courtney Kube contributed to this report

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  • French special forces join search for family of 7 kidnapped in Africa

    Marc Preel / AFP - Getty Images

    The French family, including four children, kidnapped in Cameroon on Tuesday were visiting Waza National Park, a source at the nature preserve said.

    By Tansa Musa and Bate Felix, Reuters

    French special forces arrived in northern Cameroon on Wednesday to try to help locate a French family of seven, including four children, who were kidnapped by people thought to be Islamist militants and taken into Nigeria, officials in Cameroon said.

    The abduction highlights the growing risk of attacks on French nationals and interests in Africa since Paris sent forces into Mali to oust Islamist rebels occupying the country's north.

    Ian Langsdon / EPA

    French Foreign Affairs Minister Laurent Fabius confirmed the abduction in Cameroon of the family of seven at a Tuesday news conference.

    Speaking on French television, Joseph Dion Ngute, a junior minister at the foreign ministry, said the kidnappers had put the hostages on motorcycles after their car broke down.

    "They then took another woman hostage with her car and fled into Nigeria," he said. "Our forces and the Nigerian forces were alerted, but before they reacted the kidnappers had vanished."

    It was not clear what had happened to the additional female hostage.

    Security in the Dabanga area, six miles from the Nigerian border, where they were taken has been reinforced and "urgent measures" to locate the family have been put in place, he said.

    It is the first case of foreigners being seized in the mostly Muslim north of Cameroon, a former French colony. But the region -- like others in West and North Africa with typically porous borders -- is considered to be within the operational sphere of Nigerian Islamist militant groups Boko Haram and Ansaru.

    The father of the family, which included four children ages 5 to 12, worked for utility firm GDF Suez. French television reported that the father was from a family of winemakers in the Burgundy region.

    Nigerian army spokesman Col. Sagir Musa said the armed forces were on alert, "ready to apprehend any criminal elements or terrorists that come into our areas."

    Related:

    French family with 4 children kidnapped in Africa

    Gunmen kill 9 polio health workers in Nigeria 

    Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

  • US recruiting Libyan anti-militant force, rebel commander tells Reuters

    Abdullah Douma / AFP - Getty Images

    Libyan police officers stand on high alert Tuesday after a car, belonging to a police officer, exploded near the police station in Libya's eastern city of Benghazi.

    By Reuters

    TRIPOLI, Libya -- U.S. officials in Libya have begun to look for recruits for a commando force which they plan to train to fight militants, a former commander of Libyan rebels who toppled Moammar Gadhafi said Tuesday.

    After a wave of anti-American violence in the Arab world in September during which the U.S. ambassador to Libya died in an Islamist militant attack, President Barack Obama took measures to improve the security of U.S. diplomatic installations in the region.


    A team of about 10 Americans from the embassy in Tripoli visited a paramilitary base in the eastern city of Benghazi 10 days ago to interview and get to know potential recruits, according to militia commander Fathi al-Obeidi.

    "The American team asked us for a tour of our base and we granted them permission to walk around freely," he told Reuters.

    "They stood with many of our men taking down information. They asked them about their ages, backgrounds, their tribal loyalties. They wanted to know what kind of training they had received, if any," he added.

    Terrorist groups in Libya tried to coalesce in month leading to consulate attack, officials say

    The president pledges he will get to the bottom of the events that led to the death of a U.S. ambassador in Libya and calls Romney's criticisms of his actions following the attack "offensive."

    The Pentagon declined comment on any recent visit by a U.S. delegation to Benghazi, referring queries to the State Department.

    At the same time, it acknowledged a need to develop Libyan special operations forces.

    "But a final decision on the program has not been made, and many details, like the ultimate size, composition and mission of the force are still to be determined," said Pentagon spokesman Lieutenant Colonel James Gregory.

    'Everything can change'
    Obeidi is a commander with Libya's Shield, an umbrella group for various armed militias that refused to join the official army after the war that ousted Gadhafi last year, saying it was still being run by Gadhafi loyalists.

    Slideshow: Conflict in Libya

    Goran Tomasevic / REUTERS

    An uprising in Libya ousts dictator Moammar Gadhafi.

    Launch slideshow

    He also helped a team of U.S. Marines in September lead a rescue effort that saved a group of Americans hiding in a safe house after an attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi in which U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens died.

    Obeidi said the interviewers also took note of the types of uniforms the men were wearing and asked about their opinion on security in Libya.

    Car bomb rocks Benghazi police station

    He said that the team of American officials included the U.S. charge d'affaires Laurence Pope and the future head trainer of the Libyan special forces team.

    "I've been asked to help pick about 400 of these young men between the ages of 19 and 25 to train for this force," he said. "They could be trained either in Libya or abroad."

    Rebel fighters, civilian protesters storm Libya's parliament

    The force may be required to fight jihadi militants like those accused in the September 11 assault on the consulate.

    Gregory said only that U.S. officials in Libya would work with Libyans "to assess their needs and develop options for ways the U.S. can support them through this transitional period."

    "Obviously, this is still a fluid environment and everything can change," he said.

    Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta says that the military responded quickly to events on the ground in Benghazi, but that the attack was over before the Pentagon really knew what was happening.

    Obama moved after the September violence to beef up protection of U.S. diplomatic installations in the Arab world, sending in Marine contingents to several embassies and temporarily reducing the number of U.S. personnel at some posts.

    The consulate assault became a highly politicized issue in the U.S. presidential election campaign, with Republican challenger Mitt Romney accusing Obama of taking weeks to acknowledge that the incident was a "terrorist" attack, rather than violence prompted by anger over an anti-Islam film.

    It occurred during a wave of Muslim protest across the Arab world over the film produced in California, which also sparked violence against U.S. diplomatic missions in Tunisia and Egypt.

    However, official emails obtained by Reuters showed that the White House and State Department were advised two hours after the consulate attack that an Islamist militant group had claimed responsibility.

    Obama and other U.S. officials have acknowledged that the attack was a "terrorist" act by militants with suspected links to al-Qaida affiliates or sympathizers.

    He also vowed to bring to justice those responsible for the Benghazi attack.

    But Washington may struggle to decide whom to target. The increasingly diffuse nature of al-Qaida, its allies and sympathizers complicates the job of identifying precisely which individuals and groups were behind the attacks.

    More world stories from NBC News:

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    Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

  • Three US special ops troops killed, Afghan officials say

    Three Marines were killed instantly, and the fourth was seriously wounded but the gunman escaped. NBC's Jim Miklaszewski reports.

    By NBC News staff and wire reports

    Updated at 12:35 p.m. ET: KABUL, Afghanistan -- A man wearing an Afghan army uniform shot and killed three American Marines, the U.S. military command said Friday. Afghan officials said the victims were American special operations forces troops.

    Reuters reported that an Afghan police commander opened fire on the service members after inviting them to a meeting to discuss security. A U.S. military official confirmed the three deaths and said another service member had been injured during the incident.

    NBC News' Jim Miklaszewski reported that a "lone gunman" remained on the loose and was being hunted. U.S. military officials said all of the American victims were Marines.

    Citing Afghan officials, Reuters said the American special operations forces members were killed late Thursday while attending a meeting in the Sarwan Qala area, in what appeared to be a planned attack by rogue Afghan forces.

    "The commander was Afghan National Police in charge of local police in Sangin," a senior Afghan official told Reuters on condition of anonymity. Sangin is a district of Helmand province.

    "It looks like he had drawn up a plan to kill them previously," the official added.

    A military official told NBC News' Courtney Kube that it was unclear whether the gunman was a member of the Afghan security forces or whether he was just wearing a uniform.

    Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi told The Associated Press by telephone that the attacker, whom he identified as a member of Helmand police named Asadullah, had been helping U.S. forces train Afghan local police troops. However, the Taliban has made false claims about the details of attacks in the past.

    A U.S. military official says three American service members were killed and one was wounded after a gunman opened fire on them. NBCNews.com's Dara Brown reports.


    The attack is the third killing this week of coalition soldiers by Afghans who are training to take over responsibility for security once most international forces leave in 2014.

    So-called "green on blue" shootings, in which Afghan police or soldiers turn their guns on their Western mentors, have seriously eroded trust between the allies.

    According to NATO, there have been 24 such attacks on foreign troops since January in which 28 people have been killed. Last year, there were 21 attacks in which 35 people were killed.

    Senior Army leader slain
    Earlier, the Pentagon confirmed that three U.S. service members -- including a senior Army leader -- and an American aid worker were killed Wednesday by a suicide bomber in Kunar province.

    The victims included Command Sgt. Maj. Kevin J. Griffin, the most senior enlisted soldier for the 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division. Griffin, 45, of Riverton, Wyo., was a Bronze Star recipient who first enlisted in the Army in 1988.

    Maj. Thomas E. Kennedy, 35, of West Point, N.Y., and Air Force Maj. Walter D. Gray, 38, of Conyers, Ga., were also killed. USAID foreign service officer Ragaei Abdelfattah was identified as the other victim.

    On Tuesday, two gunmen wearing Afghan army uniforms killed a U.S. soldier and wounded two others in Paktia province in the east.

    And on Thursday, two Afghan soldiers tried to gun down a group of NATO troops outside a military base in eastern Afghanistan. No international forces were killed, but one of the attackers was killed as NATO forces shot back.

    NBC News' Courtney Kube, Jim Miklaszewski and Atia Abawi, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

    Slideshow: Afghanistan: Nation at a crossroads

    Ahmad Jamshid / 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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  • Weapons on display at Special Forces expo in Jordan

    Ali Jarekji / Reuters

    Chinese officers check rifles of ARES Defense Systems, Inc from the U.S. at the opening of the Special Operations Forces Exhibition and Conference (SOFEX) at King Abdullah I Airbase in Amman May 8.

    Ali Jarekji / Reuters

    Jordanian special forces take part in a drill during a parade at the opening of the Special Operations Forces Exhibition and Conference (SOFEX) at King Abdullah I Airbase in Amman May 8.

    Khalil Mazraawi / AFP - Getty Images

    Fire billows from explosions during a military display by Jordanian special forces at the opening of the Special Operations Forces Exhibition and Conference (SOFEX) at King Abdullah I Airbase in Amman on May 8. The exhibition showcases the latest technologies by defence manufacturers around the world.

    Salah Malkawi / Getty Images

    A delegation official examines a gun during the 9th Special Operations Forces Exhibition and Conference (SOFEX) May 08, 2012 in Amman, Jordan. SOFEX brings together the defense industry and government and military leaders to investigate innovations in special operations technology and tactics.

     

  • US on 'KONY 2012': No plans to remove advisers

    A viral video campaign seeks to help the youngest victims of two decades of war in Uganda, and stop Joseph Kony, the leader of an extremist group. NBC's Craig Melvin reports.

    By NBC News, msnbc.com staff and news services

    The State Department on Thursday dismissed any suggestion that the United States might pull its advisers out of Uganda, a prospect raised by the “KONY 2012” video generating millions of views on the Internet.

    That viral video details the atrocities carried out by Josephy Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army, or LRA, and is part of a marketing campaign by the advocacy group Invisible Children to raise awareness about the issue. The jungle militia leader is wanted for atrocities by the International Criminal Court and is being hunted by troops in four Central African countries. Last year, the U.S. sent nearly 100 Special Forces troops to Uganda to train military forces there in an attempt to stop Kony.

    State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland on Thursday applauded the effort to “shine a light on the horrible atrocities of the LRA.”

    "Hundreds of -- and thousands of people around the world, especially the young people, have been mobilized to express concern for the communities in central Africa that have been placed under siege by the LRA,” Nuland said during a daily press briefing. “So the degree to which this YouTube video helps to increase awareness and increase support for the work that governments are doing, including our own government -- that can only help all of us."

    How did 'KONY 2012' video spread so fast? Oprah

    Nuland said U.S. is "very much involved" in supporting Uganda and its neighboring states with the Special Forces advisers, who are armed and combat-equipped but only for self-defense. “They've only been in for a couple of months, and we consider them a very important augmentation for our effort to help the East and Central African countries with this problem," she said.

    An American charity released a short film Monday which includes heartbreaking interviews with former victims of African warlord Joseph Kony. NBC's Craig Melvin reports on the video and how fast it went viral.

    The U.S. troops are armed and combat-equipped, bu their mission is as field trainers, although the military has said they will fight back if attacked.

    Although there no plans to remove advisers, the mission is not an open-ended commitment, according to one senior defense official. So, while there is no specific timeline for how long American forces will be there, the U.S. constantly reassesses the situation and its effectiveness, that official said.

    Since 2008, the U.S. has spent approximately $500 million helping to strengthen the Ugandan Army in its battle against the LRA.

    The Lord's Resistance Army has an estimated 150 to 200 core fighters, with another 600 to 1,000 other supporters or affiliated members throughout central Africa. It arose in Uganda in the 1980s in response to alleged brutality against the Acholi people, but since has been blamed for thousands of mutilations and killings over the last 26 years. The militia abducts children, forcing them to serve as soldiers or sex slaves, and even to kill their parents or each other to survive.

    Read more on the issue:

    The Guardian: Kony 2012: what's the real story

    Foreign Policy: Guest post: Joseph Kony is not in Uganda (and other complicated things)

    Many Ugandans frustrated, suspicious with Kony 2012

    NBC News' Courtney Kube and Jim Miklaszewski contributed to this report, as did The Associated Press.

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