Afghan Women Soldiers

A crowd of women marched through the Afghan capital on Tuesday, accusing Taliban authorities of covertly killing soldiers who served the former US-backed regime.

A group of 20 women from Afghanistan, who are serving in combat role in the army, are here for a military training programme, the first such exercise which has enthused their peers in India who too are keen to serve on the frontline.

Afghan soldiers were responsible for firing mortars at a wedding party that killed 17 women and children, officials said today, in a mistaken strike that overshadowed the transfer of nationwide security from NATO forces.

The women of Afghanistan have the worst to fear from the return of the Taliban, but not everyone is waiting for someone else to write the script of their lives. On the outskirts of Kabul, at the special forces base, we meet Najla, one of the first and few female soldiers in Afghanistan.

On May 17, 2006, in a firefight with Afghan Taliban insurgents, Canadian forces lost an artillery officer hit by shrapnel from a rocket-propelled grenade. She was Capt. Nichola Goddard, the first Canadian woman to be killed in action since her country's 1989 decision to admit women soldiers into combat.

NATO was accused of killing eight women on Sunday, capping a weekend which saw six soldiers shot dead by presumed Afghan colleagues and a Taliban assault cause unprecedented losses on one of the biggest military bases in the country.

Neighbours of a soldier accused of gunning down 16 Afghan women and children in a night time rampage describe him as a family man, playing with his two kids outside his home.

A crowd of women marched through the Afghan capital on Tuesday, accusing Taliban authorities of covertly killing soldiers who served the former US-backed regime.

A group of 20 women from Afghanistan, who are serving in combat role in the army, are here for a military training programme, the first such exercise which has enthused their peers in India who too are keen to serve on the frontline.

Afghan soldiers were responsible for firing mortars at a wedding party that killed 17 women and children, officials said today, in a mistaken strike that overshadowed the transfer of nationwide security from NATO forces.

The women of Afghanistan have the worst to fear from the return of the Taliban, but not everyone is waiting for someone else to write the script of their lives. On the outskirts of Kabul, at the special forces base, we meet Najla, one of the first and few female soldiers in Afghanistan.

On May 17, 2006, in a firefight with Afghan Taliban insurgents, Canadian forces lost an artillery officer hit by shrapnel from a rocket-propelled grenade. She was Capt. Nichola Goddard, the first Canadian woman to be killed in action since her country's 1989 decision to admit women soldiers into combat.

NATO was accused of killing eight women on Sunday, capping a weekend which saw six soldiers shot dead by presumed Afghan colleagues and a Taliban assault cause unprecedented losses on one of the biggest military bases in the country.

Neighbours of a soldier accused of gunning down 16 Afghan women and children in a night time rampage describe him as a family man, playing with his two kids outside his home.