Britain's Prince Harry may have been the primary target of an attack on the Camp Bastion military compound in Afghanistan, it was claimed today.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) have rejected Russia’s appeal against the decision to declare Spain winner of yesterday’s women’s match racing semi-final.

The Four Star Pizza ISAF Youth Sailing World Championship got off to a difficult start on Saturday and conditions were even tougher yesterday for the 350 crews of teenagers from 61 nations.

An attacker wearing an Afghan army uniform opened fire on international troops today in southern Afghanistan, killing one, Nato said. Coalition forces returned fire and killed the attacker.

Nato has been accused of misleading the public over success in Afghanistan by saying operations involving only its troops are led by local forces.

Twelve Turkish soldiers died today in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan.

With reference to Edward Horgan (Letters, Mar 13) in relation to the presence of possibly eight members of the Defence Forces being stationed in Afghanistan, it should be pointed it that it is no coincidence that the number is in single figures.

The UK is “sticking to its course” in Afghanistan amid warnings British troops could be killed in reprisal attacks for the killing of 16 civilians by a US soldier, Downing Street said.

A US soldier walked out of a base in southern Afghanistan before dawn and shot dead 16 Afghan civilians, including nine children and three women.

A US soldier walked out of a base in southern Afghanistan before dawn today and started shooting Afghan civilians, according to villagers and Afghan and Nato officials.

Protesters angry over the burning of the Koran by American troops lobbed grenades at a US base in northern Afghanistan and clashed with police and troops in a day of violence that left seven international soldiers injured and two Afghans dead.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has condemned a video depicting what appears to be four US Marines urinating on the corpses of Taliban fighters.

AFGHANISTAN’S intelligence agency said last night it had thwarted a plot to assassinate President Hamid Karzai after arresting a bodyguard and five people with links to the Haqqani network and al-Qaida.

Ten years after Nato’s invasion, the Taliban are stronger that ever, and hopes for peace a long way off, writes Katherine Haddon.

THE town of Schull is making final preparations ahead of Sunday’s opening ceremony of the ISAF Team Racing World Championship that will bring a spotlight on the West Cork sailing centre.

NATO troops attempted to ascertain last night if Taliban insurgents had shot down a troop-carrying helicopter in Afghanistan, killing 38 people in the largest loss of life suffered by foreign troops in a single incident in 10 years of war.

A BOMB exploded near a police station outside a crucial city in Afghanistan’s south yesterday where Afghan forces are readying to assume security responsibility within hours, another worrying sign as insurgents seek to disrupt a gradual transition process.

AN air strike called in by NATO-led troops in southern Afghanistan killed 12 children and two women, Afghan officials said yesterday — one of the worst civilian death tolls by foreign forces in months.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has issued a warning to Washington after 12 children and two women died in a Nato-led airstrike in southern Afghanistan.

A SUICIDE attack on an army recruitment centre in northern Afghanistan killed at least 37 people in the third major assault in the area in less than a month, the deputy governor said.

AN investigation into claims international troops killed scores of civilians in northeast Afghanistan escalated into a feud between President Hamid Karzai and senior US military officials who cited a report that Afghan parents have been known to discipline children by burning their hands and feet.

A massive effort by US and Nato forces including offensives in the insurgent heartland and targeted assassinations of rebel leaders has failed to dent Taliban numbers over the past year, according to the military and diplomats.

Nato nations formally agreed today to start reducing troop levels in Afghanistan next year and hand over control of security to the Afghans in 2014.

THE head of Britain’s Armed Forces, has warned that the West will never be able to defeat al-Qaida and Islamic militants.

PAKISTANI authorities blocked a vital supply route for NATO troops fighting in Afghanistan yesterday after the killing of three soldiers in two NATO cross-border incursions, officials said.

TWO protesters died and four were injured as Afghans protested for a third day yesterday against a plan by an American pastor to burn copies of the Islamic holy book, despite his decision to call off the action.

The pastor who planned an “International Burn-a-Koran Day” is still hopeful of meeting the imam overseeing plans for a controversial Islamic centre in New York for talks.

The pastor who planned an “International Burn-a-Koran Day” will instead fly to New York to try to meet the imam overseeing plans for a controversial Islamic centre near Ground Zero.

DUTCH troops ended their mission in Afghanistan yesterday after four “proud” years, in a departure experts say signals the beginning of a drawdown of foreign forces that will leave a worrying void.

There is little prospect of Pakistan returning home any time soon to a country which has suffered more than 7,000 terrorist incidents since 2006.

THE information released by Wikileaks earlier this week provides startling insights into the war in Afghanistan.

The general sacked by Barack Obama as Afghanistan's coalition commander ended his 34-year army career in a retirement ceremony at his Washington military headquarters.

British troops are to be pulled out of the Sangin area of Afghanistan, where nearly a third of UK deaths in the war have occurred.

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates yesterday toured the nerve centre of NATO command in Afghanistan, telling officers an imminent troop surge would turn around the eight-year war against the Taliban.

A joint British and Afghan investigation was under way today amid fears an air strike aimed at suspected insurgents may in fact have killed nine innocent civilians.

A SUICIDE car bomber killed at least eight people in the Afghan capital yesterday and a Taliban rocket hit the presidential palace grounds as violence surged across the country ahead of tomorrow’s cliffhanger election.

Irish troops are to remain in Kosovo and Afghanistan after the Cabinet signed-off on the move today.

British troops in Afghanistan have carried out one of the biggest air operations of modern times, the Ministry of Defence said.

It is not the first time the US would turn away from the alliance it founded. The NATO bombing campaign of Serbia in 1999, for example, was a terrible setback.

A British marine was killed in southern Afghanistan on Christmas Eve, the Ministry of Defence in the UK said today.

NATO allies reached a deal yesterday on a US call for direct attacks on the Afghan drugs trade that the alliance’s military commander said is key to bringing security to the country, NATO said.

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Cabinet voted today to extend Germany’s military mission in Afghanistan for 14 more months.

Nato said insurgents may be planning to falsely claim that international military forces killed up to 70 civilians in southern Afghanistan.

Irish peacekeeping troops will remain in Kosovo and Afghanistan for another year, it emerged tonight.