The US has signalled it might not leave any troops in Afghanistan after its pull out, in spite of the Pentagon claiming thousands may be needed to contain al-Qaida.

A suicide car bomber has killed two Afghan civilians and wounded 14 others near the main US military base in southern Afghanistan.

US defence secretary Leon Panetta says America’s fight against al Qaida terrorists is taking a new direction – moving beyond declared war zones like Afghanistan and requiring more partnering with foreign commandos.

US President Barack Obama has launched a three-day Southeast Asia tour, hailing alliances with countries such as Thailand as cornerstones of the administration’s deeper commitment to the Asia-Pacific region.

The sex scandal that felled CIA Director David Petraeus widened to ensnare the top US commander in Afghanistan, an improbable drama unfolding at a critical time in the Afghan war effort and just as President Barack Obama was hoping for a smooth transition in his national security team.

The sex scandal that led to the resignation of CIA director David Petraeus has widened, with the top US commander in Afghanistan under investigation for alleged “inappropriate communications” with a woman who is said to have received threatening emails from General Petraeus’ former lover.

FBI agents are at the home of the woman whose affair with retired General David Petraeus led to his resignation as CIA director.

The US military did not intervene quickly during the attack on America's consulate in Libya because military leaders did not have adequate intelligence information and felt they should not put their forces at risk, defence secretary Leon Panetta said.

The 33,000 additional US troops that President Barack Obama ordered to Afghanistan to stamp out the Taliban attacks nearly two years ago have now left the country, but a new wave of deadly insider attacks and a reassessment of how Nato troops partner with Afghans have raised questions about how well the military strategy is working.

After a 25-year ban, America will begin allowing Royal New Zealand Navy ships to visit US military and Coast Guard facilities around the world, US defence secretary Leon Panetta said.

Another Nato soldier was killed yesterday by an Afghan police officer, raising the coalition death toll from so-called “green on blue” shootings to nine in 11 days as the US urged Kabul to step up screening of recruits.

Iran is playing a growing role supporting the Syrian regime and is helping to build and train a militia to fight opposition forces, US defence chiefs say.

Regime forces strafed rebel-held districts in Aleppo with helicopter gunships and pounded them with shelling on the third day of a pitched battle for Syria’s commercial capital.

The US is heaping new pressure on Russia to change course and support international action in Syria, warning that intransigence by Moscow may lead to open civil war that could spill across the Middle East with devastating consequences.

The White House and the Pentagon voiced regrets today for newly published photographs that claim to show US troops posing with the bodies of dead insurgents in Afghanistan.

The American soldier accused of killing 16 Afghan villagers in a pre-dawn shooting rampage was named last night as Staff Sgt Robert Bales.

An Afghan man who crashed a stolen vehicle on to the runway at Camp Bastion as US defence secretary Leon Panetta arrived there has died of his injuries.

Leaders of the US and Britain have outlined plans to shift the Nato war effort in Afghanistan towards a back-seat advisory role while Afghan forces increasingly take the lead, but stressed that the two nations remain committed to the mission there.

A vehicle drove onto the runway of the main British base in Afghanistan then burst into flames at around the same time the US Defence Secretary arrived there today.

Partial remains of several victims of the September 11 2001 attacks on the United States were incinerated by a military contractor and sent to a landfill site, a government report said.

Nato’s top official has joined the US and France in calling for Afghan forces to take the lead in all combat operations by mid-2013, while continuing to help in fighting the Taliban.

THE US Marines have identified the unit whose forces are suspected of being behind a video appearing to show them urinating on the bodies of dead Taliban in Afghanistan, according to a Marine officer.

President Barack Obama insisted today that the United States will maintain what he calls the best-equipped military in US history despite deep and looming defence budget cuts.

US forces formally marked the end of their mission in Iraq with a low-key ceremony near Baghdad, after nearly nine years of divisive war that began with the invasion to oust Saddam Hussein.

The US military has formally shut down the war in Iraq, officially retiring the flag of US Forces-Iraq.

US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta has arrived in Baghdad today to formally end the nearly nine-year war in Iraq.

The US has delivered a formal request to Tehran for the return of a US surveillance drone captured by Iranian armed forces but is not hopeful that Iran will comply.

The bitter partisanship gripping Washington blocked a deal among members of a special congressional panel that struggled and eventually failed in its mission to cut more than a trillion dollars from America’s crippling and expanding debt.

Pakistan is “exporting violence” to Afghanistan, the top US military officer said today.

The US military passed a historic milestone with the repeal of the ban on gays serving openly in uniform, ending a prohibition that President Barack Obama said had forced gay and lesbian service members to “lie about who they are”.

Nato and Afghan forces killed a former Guantanamo detainee who had become a key al-Qaida affiliate after returning to Afghanistan, officials said today.

Al-Qaida’s second in command, Atiyah Abd al-Rahman, has been killed in Pakistan, a senior Obama administration official said today.

Pentagon chief Leon Panetta will end the ban on gays serving openly in America’s armed services today, certifying that repealing the 17-year-old law will not hurt the military’s ability to fight, officials said.

PAKISTAN has called on the US to share information about new al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahri after US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta said he believed that Osama bin Laden’s successor was in Pakistan.

America has said Osama bin Laden was actively running al-Qaida up until he was killed.

While the pro-democracy uprisings in the Arab world suggest there is little support for al-Qaida’s ideology but the threat has not entirely gone away, writes Brian Murphy

PRESIDENT Barack Obama said yesterday he’s decided not to release death photos of terrorist Osama bin Laden because their graphic nature could incite violence and create national security risks for the United States.

Pakistan alerted the US to suspicions about Osama bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad as far back as 2009, the country’s Foreign Secretary revealed today.

Osama bin Laden was unarmed when commandos burst into his room and shot him dead, the White House has revealed, raising questions about whether the US ever planned to capture the terrorist leader alive.

US OFFICIALS were concerned that Pakistan could jeopardise the Osama bin Laden operation and “might alert the targets,” CIA director Leon Panetta admitted yesterday.

MUSLIM clerics have said Osama bin Laden’s burial at sea was a violation of Islamic tradition that may further provoke militant calls for revenge attacks against US targets.

US FORCES finally found al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden not in the rugged mountains of Afghanistan’s border, but in an expensive compound in an upscale summer resort a little more than an hour’s drive from Pakistan’s capital, with his youngest wife.

Helicopters descended out of darkness on the most important counter-terrorism mission in US history. It was an operation so secret that only a select few US officials knew what was about to happen.

The US Afghanistan commander General David Petraeus is to be made the new head of the CIA, security sources have said.