Veteran and Queens native Captain James Van Thach and his service dog Liz traveled to Afghanistan with the Troops First Foundation to share his experiences of physical and psychological stresses with over 1500 fellow soldiers.

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Captain James Van Thach was in his 30s, a recent law grad and ready for two years as a soldier in Iraq.

When he came home, he was a disabled veteran moving in with his parents.

“I felt like a shell of myself,” Van Thach told Metro of his return to New York in 2008 after being injured two separate times in Iraq.

The Queens native is working his way toward recovery with the help of Liz, a mixed Labrador and golden retriever service dog, and helping others do the same.

Both will be honored Thursday night at the Hearts and Heroes Gala in Manhattan.

Van Thach, 37, who lives in Bellerose, was first injured by an improvised explosive device, then again when a rocket exploded steps away, leaving him with a traumatic brain injury, blurred vision in his left eye and post-traumatic stress disorder.  

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  PHOTOS: Queens native Captain James Van Thach and his service dog Liz

He received both a Bronze Star and Purple Heart.

Canine Companions for Independence, a Medford, N.Y., group that matches people with disabilities with dogs, set him up with Liz last year.

“I take 21 pills a day just to survive,” he said. “If I drop my pills or my pill bottle, I’m not able to pick them up. I can give her the command, she can pick up the item off the ground, hold it in her mouth, not chew it or anything, and release it in my hand.”

Liz also grabs clothes, keys or anything else that he needs, he said.

He added, “It’s a life saver. I’ve gained more independence.”

Earlier this year, he traveled to Afghanistan with a group called Troops First Foundation, which runs Operation Proper Exit.

He told about 1,500 soldiers about his experiences, knowing many might be struggling with psychological and physical stresses or even suicidal thoughts.

“Seek help and move forward in your life, like I am,” he told them.

Thursday, Liz will be by his side at the gala.

“She’s my ticket in,” he said.

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New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo ordered flags to be flown at half-mast on Thursday and Friday after two New York service members were killed in Afghanistan.

Staff Sgt. Eric D. Christian, 39, of Warwick, N.Y., died during “combat operations” in Afghanistan, according to the Department of Defense.

“I join with all New Yorkers in mourning the loss of Staff Sgt. Christian,” Cuomo said in a statement. “I extend my deepest sympathy to his family, his friends and his fellow Marines. We will honor his service and sacrifice and his dedication to our nation.”

Cpl. Davisd M. Sonka, 23, of Parker, Colo, was also killed. The two were deployed with the 2nd Marine Special Operations Battalion, based in Camp Lejeune, N.C.

The deaths are being investigated, but the military did not provide any further information.

Today, Cuomo announced that Army Staff Sgt. Francis G. Phillips IV, 28, died after his vehicle was attacked by an improvised explosive device in Maiwand, Afghanistan.

Phillips was from Meridian, N.Y., according to the governor’s office.

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Five U.S. soldiers were killed by a bomb in the southern Afghanistan province of Kandahar on Saturday, a U.S. authorities said, capping off one of the bloodiest weeks for international forces this year.

The attack underscored the dangers faced by the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), even as they hand over much of the fighting to the Afghans before a planned departure next year.

Nineteen U.S. personnel have been killed in the last week in three air crashes and Saturday’s bombing. Three British soldiers were also killed on Tuesday by a roadside bomb in the southern province of Helmand.

ISAF said on its website that the five soldiers were killed by an improvised explosive device in southern Afghanistan. A U.S. forces spokesman in the region and a Pentagon official said the five dead were U.S. troops.

Kandahar authorities said the soldiers’ vehicle struck an IED in Maiwand district, which borders Helmand province to the west and is considered one of the most volatile of Kandahar’s districts.

Last month, nine Afghan men working for a mine clearance organization were taken captive by Taliban fighters there, though they were later released.

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Kerry and Karzai will discuss a host of issues including Afghan reconciliation, the transfer of security responsibility to Afghan forces and Afghanistan’s elections, the official told reporters.

Karzai’s government is trying to open formal negotiations with the Taliban, who have remained resilient in the face of superior NATO firepower in the war now in its 12th year.

Karzai is due to travel to Qatar within days to discuss the peace process and the opening of a Taliban office for conducting negotiations. The trip comes after years of stalled discussions with the United States, Pakistan and the Taliban.

Commenting on Karzai’s trip, the official told reporters: “I wouldn’t want to overplay it but I think that it’s a very positive sign. It’s another step on a continued path toward … getting to some sort of reconciliation process.

“Nobody is expecting that he will open an office there in a week. Nobody is expecting that he will be sitting down with Taliban in a week. This is a long process and this is one more small but positive step in that … process.”

Tensions between the United States and Afghanistan have deepened in recent years over a range of issues, including civilian casualties during air strikes, night raids and the transfer of prisoners.

The official acknowledged the difficulties in the U.S.-Afghan relationship but said he believed they had resolved a number of them, including an agreement to remove U.S. forces from part of Wardak province where they were accused of mistreating local residents.

He also said the United States believed that the two nations had moved beyond an incident in which Karzai recently accused Washington of colluding with the Taliban to keep foreign forces in Afghanistan, marring U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel’s first trip to Pakistan since taking on his new post.

“There will always be bumps in the road … It’s a relationship that can withstand those,” the U.S. official said.

“The process of winding down our current position and role in Afghanistan and stepping into more of a support role … is not going to be a smooth process at all times. Issues of sovereignty and security are always going to be difficult.”

The official said Kerry had wanted to visit Pakistan on this trip but had decided not to given the May 11 election, in part to avoid any appearance of seeking to influence what would be Pakistan’s first civilian to civilian electoral handover.

The military has ruled Pakistan for more than half of its 66-year history, either through coups or from behind the scenes.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry (C) speaks to the media on an Air Force C-17 aircraft upon his return to Amman from a trip to Baghdad March 24, 2013. REUTERS/Jason Reed

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President Barack Obama will announce in his State of the Union address on Tuesday that 34,000 troops will return from Afghanistan by early 2014, a source familiar with the speech told Reuters.

“The president will announce that 34,000 troops will be back from Afghanistan a year from tonight,” the source said on condition of anonymity.

Obama and Afghan President Hamid Karzai last month agreed to speed the handover of combat operations in Afghanistan to Afghan forces.

There are about 66,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan. Washington’s NATO allies have been steadily reducing their troop numbers despite doubts about the ability of Afghan forces to shoulder full responsibility for security.

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Queen Elizabeth’s 28-year-old grandson, third in line to the British throne, will return home later this week after a 20-week posting with NATO forces at the Camp Bastion military base in the southern province of Helmand.

Asked before he left Afghanistan if he had killed insurgents during his tour, he said: “Yeah, so, lots of people have. … Yes, we fire when we have to, take a life to save a life, but essentially we’re more of a deterrent than anything else.

“If there’s people trying to do bad stuff to our guys, then we’ll take them out of the game, I suppose,” the second son of heir-to-the-throne Prince Charles and the late Princess Diana said in one of several interviews released to the media.

The Taliban had said it would do its utmost to kidnap or kill Harry during his tour, and an Afghan insurgent warlord labeled him a drunken “jackal” out to kill innocent Afghans.

His base was attacked on his birthday last September, but it was never clear if he was the target or if the Taliban raid, in which two U.S. marines were killed, was in response to a film which was seen as insulting to the Prophet Mohammad.

Known in the military as Captain Harry Wales, he was deployed to Afghanistan four months ago, shortly after pictures of him frolicking naked with a nude woman at a hotel in Las Vegas were published around the world.

“I probably let myself down, I let my family down, I let other people down,” he said of the Vegas incident. “But it was probably a classic example of me being too much army, and not enough prince.”

NO SPECIAL TREATMENT

Harry’s job as an Apache co-pilot was to man its weapons system when his 662 Squadron unit flew sorties in support of ground troops fighting Taliban or accompanying other helicopters on missions to evacuate casualties.

However, he said killing the enemy was not what had inspired him to become a gunner on a helicopter carrying rockets, missiles and a machine gun.

“It’s not the reason I decided to do this job. The reason was to get back out here,” he said.

Harry served as a combat soldier on the front line in Helmand for 10 weeks between 2007 and 2008, calling in air strikes as a “Forward Air Controller” for NATO forces, becoming the first British royal to be engaged in combat since his uncle Prince Andrew flew helicopters during the 1982 Falklands War.

However, his first assignment was cut short after media leaked news of his presence. This time, the media were allowed to say he was on active duty in Afghanistan although giving exact details were forbidden.

In the now-released interviews, Harry said he thought his elder brother Prince William, a Royal Air Force search and rescue helicopter pilot, would “love” to have been in Afghanistan too.

“To be honest, I don’t see why he couldn’t,” the royal said, adding he had received no special treatment while on deployment – eating, sleeping and relaxing with the other pilots.

“Yes, you get shot at. But if the guys who are doing the same job as us are being shot at on the ground, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with us being shot at as well. People back home will have issues with that, but we’re not special.”

Harry’s military role has enhanced his status in Britain and helped shed a reputation of a royal wild child who admitted dabbling in marijuana and under-age drinking, and who made headlines when he donned a Nazi uniform to a costume party.

As one of the most world’s most eligible bachelors, his private life remains a source of huge media attention. However, he said his antics in Vegas, where he was letting off steam ahead of his Afghan tour, should have remained private.

Unsurprisingly, he said he was more comfortable in his “normal” life in the army than as a British prince.

“GO UGLY EARLY”

“My father’s always trying to remind me about who I am and stuff like that,” said Harry, who wore a “Go Ugly Early” badge attached to his helmet – Ugly being the Apache call sign – and joked that he honed his weapons’ pilot skills playing PlayStation and Xbox computer games.

He also repeated his dislike of intrusions by the British media, something close to his heart after his mother, who spent most of her adult life in the media spotlight, was killed in a Paris car crash while being chased by paparazzi when he was 12.

“I think it’s fairly obvious how far back (the mistrust of the press) goes. It’s when I was very small,” he said.

He always read what papers wrote about him, he said.

Britain has announced it will withdraw almost half its 9,000 troops from Afghanistan by the end of the year, with nearly all the rest due to pull out when the NATO mission finishes in late 2014, ending a war that has cost the lives of 440 British army personnel since the U.S.-led invasion in 2001.

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Obama’s decision to nominate Hagel – a Republican former senator who split with his party to oppose the Iraq war – as U.S. defense secretary came despite a public lobbying campaign against his candidacy in recent weeks by a host of critics, some of whom seized upon past remarks to argue he is anti-Israel.

Hagel’s supporters deny that, but are bracing for a tough confirmation battle in the Senate. Obama, as he announced the nomination, called Hagel the kind of leader U.S. forces deserve and pointed to his sacrifices in the Vietnam War, where he earned two Purple Hearts – the decoration for troops wounded in battle.

“Chuck knows that war is not an abstraction,” Obama said. “He understands that sending young Americans to fight and bleed in the dirt and mud, that’s something we only do when it’s absolutely necessary.”

Hagel, who would be the first Vietnam veteran to take the job, would succeed Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, 74, who is retiring from public life after a more than four-decade career in government that included leading the CIA during the covert raid to kill al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in 2011.

The blunt, 66-year-old Hagel will need to take over where Panetta leaves off, orchestrating a drawdown in U.S. forces in Afghanistan intended to bring the combat mission to a close by the end 2014. Hagel and Panetta were due to dine together on Monday night to discuss the transition.

The Afghan drawdown’s pace is an open question, as is the size of the residual force the United States will leave behind. Obama is again showing his readiness to veto the military brass, considering a lower range of options – keeping between 3,000 and 9,000 troops in Afghanistan – than his top commander in Afghanistan proposed, one U.S. official told Reuters.

Hagel has not yet commented on the matter, but Obama would likely not choose a Pentagon chief who fundamentally disagreed with him on that or other key issues.

Hagel, who fought alongside his own brother and suffered shrapnel wounds in Vietnam and burns to his face, has made no secret of his reservations about what the military can accomplish in Afghanistan.

“We can’t impose our will. The Russians found that out in Afghanistan. We’ve been involved in two very costly wars that have taught us a lesson once again,” Hagel told PBS’s “Tavis Smiley” show last year.

Unsurprisingly, he also is extremely cautious about what could be done in Syria. “I don’t think America wants to be in the lead on this,” he told Foreign Policy magazine in May.

‘THE GUY AT THE BOTTOM’

Hagel’s first-hand experience in war may win respect inside the Pentagon. He volunteered for the Vietnam War as an infantryman. He would become be the first defense secretary who started and ended his military career with an enlisted rank, as opposed to serving as an officer – an important distinction in wartime.

The enlisted ranks are “the ones who have the least say about where, when, and why we go to war, but bear the harshest consequences when we do,” Matt Pottinger, a veteran of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and a former journalist, wrote in a piece on the “The Daily Beast” website applauding Hagel as a candidate to become defense chief.

Obama on Monday quoted Hagel saying: “My frame of reference … is geared towards the guy at the bottom who’s doing the fighting and the dying.”

Hagel’s comments on Middle East issues, including on Israel, are likely to complicate his Senate confirmation. House of Representatives Majority Leader Eric Cantor, a Virginia Republican, said in a statement on Monday he is “profoundly concerned and disappointed” by Hagel’s nomination.

Critics including Abraham Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League, a group devoted to fighting anti-Semitism, have raised questions about Hagel’s past comments, including one during a 2006 interview in which he was quoted as saying: “the Jewish lobby intimidates a lot of people up here.” Hagel also has faced criticism for urging direct talks with Iran.

Many foreign policy heavyweights have come to Hagel’s defense, including former national security advisers Brent Scowcroft and Zbigniew Brzezinski, who served Republican and Democratic presidents respectively, and former U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan and Iraq Ryan Crocker.

Questions remain about Hagel’s approach to the defense budget.

Panetta has said the U.S. military would be hollowed out if $487 billion in planned spending reductions over the next decade are doubled – something that would happen if Obama and Congress fail to agree by the end of February on a way to avert automatic cuts due to kick in.

But Hagel said in an interview last year with the Financial Times: “I think the military needs to be pared down. I don’t think the military has really looked at themselves strategically, critically in a long, long time.”

His position in favor of deficit reduction raises questions about possible cuts or schedule delays to big weapons systems like Lockheed Martin Corp’s F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, according to Jim McAleese, a defense consultant.

McAleese also named as being at risk of cuts or delays the Army’s planned Ground Combat Vehicle, the V-22 Osprey built by Boeing Co and Bell Helicopter, a unit of Textron Inc, and the Navy’s early work on developing a new ballistic missile submarine. McAleese said final decisions would be up to Congress, where such programs enjoy strong support.

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The USMC said the video, which sparked outrage across the Internet, was likely recorded on July 27th, 2011 after a counter-insurgency mission in Afghanistan. It’s unclear which Marines in the clip, if any, are Chamblin and Deptola.

Both Marines are facing a slew of other charges including being derelict in their duties by failing to properly supervise junior Marines, failing to require junior Marines to wear their personal protective equipment, failing to stop and report the misconduct of junior Marines, failing to report the negligent discharge of a grenade launcher and failing to stop the indiscriminate firing of weapons.

“We will be as forthright as possible while preserving the rights of the
accused and fairness and integrity of the military justice process,”
the USMC said.

Both Marines will go to trial. The USMC is still investigating other cases in connection with the video.

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Queen Elizabeth’s grandson is in Afghanistan on a four-month tour, based out of Camp Bastion in the volatile Helmand province, where he will be on the front line in the NATO-led war against Taliban insurgents.

“We are using all our strength to get rid of him, either by killing or kidnapping,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location.

“We have informed our commanders in Helmand to do whatever they can to eliminate him,” Mujahid added, declining to go into detail on what he dubbed the “Harry operations”.

Britain’s Ministry of Defence declined to comment on Mujahid’s statement, and British authorities have given few details of Prince Harry’s stint in Afghanistan for security reasons.

The 27-year-old prince, who is third in line to the throne, took up his new role two weeks after being photographed frolicking naked in Las Vegas.

Known in the military as Captain Wales, he first served in Afghanistan in 2008 as an on-the-ground air controller, but his tour was cut short when a news blackout designed to protect him while he was on the front line collapsed.

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Obama did not mention tension with Iran and Syria in his remarks to veterans and military families at a hot, sunny Memorial Day ceremony, focusing instead on the wars started by his predecessor, George W. Bush, that he wound down as president.

“After a decade under the dark cloud of war, we can see the light of a new day on the horizon,” he said at Arlington National Cemetery, drawing applause when he noted the “milestone” of it being the first Memorial Day in nine years without Americans fighting and dying in Iraq.

“As commander in chief, I can tell you that sending our troops into harm’s way is the most wrenching decision that I have to make,” Obama said shortly after laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

“I can promise you I will never do so unless it is absolutely necessary and that when we do, we must give our troops a clear mission and the full support of a grateful nation.”

Later on Monday, Obama will attend a ceremony at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, introducing Obama at the Arlington military cemetery, said that 58,000 Americans died in the Vietnam War. More than 4,000 Americans died in Iraq from 2003 to 2011, and nearly 2,000 have died in Afghanistan from the war’s start in 2001 to date.

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Senior U.S. officials and NATO’s top commander in the country, U.S. General John Allen, moved quickly to condemn the pictures even before they were published by the Los Angeles Times, which received the photos from another soldier.

“The actions of the individuals photographed do not represent the policies of International Security Assistance Force or the U.S. Army,” Allen said in a statement, adding an investigation into the incident was underway.

The appearance on the LA Times website of some of the 18 pictures, taken in 2010, comes at a sensitive time in U.S.-Afghan relations, following release of a video in January that showed four U.S. Marines urinating on Afghan insurgent corpses.

The inadvertent burning of copies of the Koran at a major NATO airbase also triggered a week of riots that left 30 dead and led to the deaths of six Americans.

And in March a U.S. Army sergeant went on a nighttime shooting rampage in two southern Afghan villages, killing 17 civilians and prompting Afghan President Hamid Karzai to demand foreign soldiers confine themselves to major bases.

Taliban insurgents launched suicide attacks in Kabul and three other provinces at the weekend, claiming the assault was launched in retaliation for all three incidents.

In one of the pictures a paratrooper posed next to an unofficial patch placed beside a body that read “Zombie Hunter”, while in another soldiers posed with Afghan police holding the severed legs of an insurgent bombers.

Two soldiers in another frame held a dead insurgent’s hand with the middle finger raised.

The LA Times said the 82nd Airborne Division soldiers had been at a police station in Afghanistan’s Zabol province in February 2010, and revisited several months later. The pictures were taken on both occasions.

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said in a statement released by departmental spokesman George Little that publication of the pictures could prompt further attacks against security forces ahead.

“The danger is that this material could be used by the enemy to incite violence against U.S. and Afghan service members in Afghanistan,” Panetta said. “U.S. forces in the country are taking security measures to guard against it.”

The U.S. Ambassador in Afghanistan Ryan Crocker also condemned the photographs, calling the actions of the soldiers “morally repugnant” and saying they “dishonor the sacrifices of hundreds of thousands of U.S. soldiers and civilians who have served with distinction in Afghanistan”.

The Times defended the distribution of the photos, which U.S. military officials asked the Times not to publish.

“After careful consideration, we decided that publishing a small but representative selection of the photos would fulfill our obligation to readers to report vigorously and impartially on all aspects of the American mission in Afghanistan,” Times Editor Davan Maharaj said in the newspaper’s article.

The photos are likely to stir up more anti-Western sentiment in Afghanistan as NATO combat troops look to exit the country in 2014 and strengthen fragile security in the country.

Such incidents have complicated U.S. efforts to negotiate a strategic partnership agreement to define its presence once most foreign combat troops pull out by the end of 2014.

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Yes, Ashan could have used the money so he figured it was an easy way to get the quick hundred bucks, we assume. As the Washington Post reports, Ashan, who was wanted for plotting attacks on security forces, approached police in the district of Sar Howza, clutching the poster that bared his face. He was, obviously, arrested immediately by several confused officers.

When U.S. troops approached Ashan to confirm that the man on the poster was indeed him, he replied, “‘Yes, yes, that’s me! Can I get my award now?’” according to SPC Matthew Baker.

Troops ran a biometric scan to confirm Ashan’s identity. One U.S. official told the Washington Post that Ashan is the equivalent of one of the “Home Alone” burglars.

Another official said, “Clearly, the man is an imbecile.”

And in the end, Ashan didn’t even get his hundred bucks.

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The soldier, who is accused of killing the villagers — including nine children and three women — is a trained sniper from Fort Lewis, Washington, according to the Daily Mail. The soldier has been in the Army for 11 years, serving three tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan.

A military official said the brain injury might have been caused by a car accident or from hitting his head on the hatch of a vehicle. He took and passed a mental health screening in 2008. The staff sergeant is married with children, but may have been going through marital problems when he opened fire in the homes of three Afghan families.

Officials say the soldier left his base in Kandahar at 3 a.m. wearing night-vision goggles. That’s when, they say, he entered the three homes and began shooting. Family members of the victims claim the soldier also poured chemicals over their corpses before setting them on fire. He then turned himself in at his base. He is now in pretrial confinement as Army officials investigate.

“He was walking around taking up positions in the house — in two or three places like he was searching,” said Mohammad Zahir, a 26-year-old villager who said the soldier wounded his father. “He was on his knees when he shot my father in the thigh.”

The incident has sparked outrage as Afghans call for the immediate removal of American troops in Afghanistan. The Taliban claims more than one soldier is responsible and has vowed revenge, calling the killings “blood-soaked and inhumane crime” by “sick-minded American savages” on its website.

U.S. officials say their exit strategy will not be affected by the killings.

“The focus of our overall strategy is not in reaction to a single event,” White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters.

“I do not believe that this incident will change the timetable of a strategy that was designed and is being implemented in a way to allow for the withdrawal of U.S. forces, to allow for the transfer of lead security authority over to the Afghans,” Carney said.

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Just days before Sunday’s attack, Kabul and Washington had made significant progress in negotiations on a Strategic Partnership Agreement that would allow American advisers and special forces to stay in Afghanistan after foreign combat troops leave at the end of 2014.

But securing a full deal may be far more difficult now after the shooting spree in villages in the southern province of Kandahar, the Taliban heartland, which killed mostly women and children.

“This could delay the signing of the Strategic Partnership Agreement,” an Afghan government official told Reuters.

The attack, the latest American public relations disaster in Afghanistan, may be a turning point for the United States in a costly and unpopular war now in its eleventh year.

Afghanistan’s parliament condemned the killings, saying Afghans had run out of patience with the actions of foreign forces and the lack of oversight.

Popular fury over the killing spree, which brought demands that the United States withdraw earlier than scheduled, could be exploited by the Taliban to gain new recruits.

“We have benefited little from the foreign troops here but lost everything – our lives, dignity and our country to them,” said Haji Najiq,” a Kandahar shop owner.

“The explanation or apologies will not bring back the dead. It is better for them to leave us alone and let us live in peace.”

Anti-Americanism, which boiled over after copies of the Muslim holy book, the Koran, were inadvertently burned at a NATO base last month is likely to deepen after the Kandahar carnage.

“The Americans said they will leave in 2014. They should leave now so we can live in peace,” said Mohammad Fahim, 19, a university student. “Even if the Taliban return to power our elders can work things out with them. The Americans are disrespectful.”

The civilian deaths may also force Afghan President Hamid Karzai to harden his stand in the partnership talks to appease a public already critical of his government’s performance.

The partnership agreement, which Washington and Kabul have been discussing for more than a year, will be the framework for U.S. involvement in Afghanistan after foreign combat troops leave at the end of 2014.

Without a pact that keeps U.S. advisors or special forces here, there is a danger that civil war could erupt again in Afghanistan because ill-trained Afghan forces would be unable to keep insurgents at bay.

The Kandahar violence came just days after the United States and Afghanistan signed a deal on the gradual transfer of a major U.S.-run detention centre to Afghan authorities, overcoming one of the main sticking points in the partnership negotiations.

“The Americans are not here to assist us they are here to kill us,” said Najibullah, 33, a house painter in Kabul.

“I hate the Americans and I hate anyone who loves them, so I hope there is no long-term partnership between our countries.”

Afghanistan wants a timeline to take over detention centers and for the United States and NATO to agree to end night raids on Afghan homes as preconditions for signing the pact.

Civilian deaths are one of the main sources of tension between Kabul and Washington.

U.S. officials warned of possible reprisal attacks after the villagers were killed in the likely “rogue” shooting.

Washington has rushed to distance the shootings from the efforts of the 90,000-strong U.S. force but faces growing criticism at home and abroad about its conduct of the war.

“The U.S. Embassy in Kabul alerts U.S. citizens in Afghanistan that as a result of a tragic shooting incident in Kandahar province involving a U.S. service member, there is a risk of anti-American feelings and protests in coming days, especially in the eastern and southern provinces,” the embassy said in an emergency statement on its website.

“NIGHT-TIME MASSACRE”

Kandahar is the birthplace of the Taliban, who were toppled by U.S.-backed Afghan forces in late 2001. Southern and eastern provinces have seen some of the fiercest fighting of the war.

The U.S. embassy said on its Twitter feed that restrictions had been placed on the movements of its personnel in the south.

A sharp increase in attacks on U.S. troops by Afghan forces followed the Koran burning. Sunday’s incident in Kandahar was one of the worst of its kind, witnesses describing it as a “night-time massacre” that killed nine children and three women.

Villagers in three houses were attacked and many civilians were wounded, a spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said.

U.S. President Barack Obama called Karzai, promising a quick investigation and to hold accountable anyone responsible for an incident he called “tragic and shocking”.

But Afghans are tired of American apologies. Such incidents are often quickly exploited by insurgents and the Afghan Taliban said it would take revenge.

“The Kandahar shootings will give the Taliban the chance to prove to Afghans that they are the freedom fighters and the Americans are the evil ones,” said Waheed Mujhda of the Afghan Analysts Network.

Sunday’s attack may also harden a growing consensus in Washington about what can be accomplished in Afghanistan.

The bill for the war has already exceeded $500 billion and more than 1,900 U.S. troops have been killed, with the total number of foreign troops killed approaching 3,000.

“These killings only serve to reinforce the mindset that the whole war is broken and that there’s little we can do about it beyond trying to cut our losses and leave,” said Joshua Foust, a security expert with the American Security Project.

Karzai, whose relationship with his Western backers is fraught at the best of times, condemned the rampage as “intentional murders” and demanded an explanation. Karzai’s office released a statement quoting a villager as saying “American soldiers woke my family up and shot them in the face”.

There were conflicting accounts of how many U.S. soldiers were involved, with witness accounts saying there were several.

Officials from the U.S. embassy, ISAF and from Washington said it appeared there was only one. An ISAF spokesman said the lone U.S. soldier “walked back to the base and turned himself in to U.S. forces this morning”.

The detained soldier was described by U.S. officials as a staff sergeant who was married with three children. He had served three Iraq tours but was on his first Afghan deployment.

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The burning of the Korans at the Bagram compound earlier this week has deepened public mistrust of NATO forces struggling to stabilize Afghanistan before foreign combat troops withdraw in 2014.

Hundreds of Afghans marched toward the palace of Afghan President Hamid Karzai in Kabul, while on the other side of the capital protesters hoisted the white flag of the Taliban.

Chanting “Death to America!” and “Long live Islam!,” protesters also threw rocks at police in Kabul, while Afghan army helicopters circled above.

Friday is a holy day and the official weekly holiday in Afghanistan and mosques in the capital drew large crowds, with police in pick-up trucks posted on nearby streets.

Armed protesters took refuge in shops in the eastern part of the city, where they killed one demonstrator, said police at the scene. In another Kabul rally, police said they were unsure who fired the shots that killed a second protester.

Seven more protesters were killed in the western province of Herat, two more in eastern Khost province and one in the relatively peaceful northern Baghlan province, health and local officials said. In Herat, around 500 men charged at the U.S. consulate.

U.S. President Barack Obama had sent a letter to Karzai apologizing for the unintentional burning of the Korans at NATO’s main Bagram air base, north of Kabul, after Afghan laborers found charred copies while collecting rubbish.

Muslims consider the Koran to be the literal word of God and treat each copy with deep reverence. Desecration is considered one of the worst forms of blasphemy.

Afghanistan wants NATO to put those responsible on public trial.

In neighboring U.S. ally Pakistan, about 400 members of a hardline Islamist group staged protests. “If you burn the Koran, we will burn you,” they shouted.

To Afghanistan’s west, Iranian cleric Ahmad Khatami said the U.S. had purposely burned the Korans. “These apologies are fake. The world should know that America is against Islam,” he said in a speech broadcast live on state radio.

“It (the Koran burning) was not a mistake. It was an intentional move, done on purpose.”

Most Westerners have been confined to their heavily fortified compounds, including at the sprawling U.S. embassy complex and other diplomatic missions, as protests that have killed a total of 23 people, including two U.S. soldiers, rolled into their fourth day. The embassy, in a message on the microblogging site Twitter, urged U.S. citizens to “please be safe out there” and expanded movement restrictions to relatively peaceful northern provinces, where large demonstrations also occurred Thursday, including the attempted storming of a Norwegian military base.

The Taliban urged Afghan security forces Thursday to “turn their guns on the foreign infidel invaders” and repeatedly urged Afghans to kill, beat and capture NATO soldiers.

Germany, which has the third-largest foreign presence in the NATO-led war, pulled out several weeks early of a small base in the northern Takhar province Friday over security concerns, a defense ministry spokesman said.

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The U.S. Marine Corps has reportedly launched an investigation into the video, according to TMZ.

The
video was posted on YouTube by someone with the user name
“semperfiLoneVoice,” along with the description, “Scout sniper team 4
with 3rd battalion 2nd marines out of camp lejeune peeing on dead
talibans. i thought marines were suppose to do the right thing when no
one is watching.”

“While we have not yet verified the origin or
authenticity of this video, the actions portrayed are not consistent
with our core values and are not indicative of the character of the
Marines in our Corps,” Captain Kendra N. Hardesty told TMZ. “This matter
will be fully investigated and those responsible will be held
accountable for their actions.”

The soldiers can be heard laughing and joking in the video, one saying, “Have a great day, buddy.”

“Golden like a shower,” another soldier says after he is finished urinating.

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If a U.S. soldier asked you why he should risk his life for Afghans, what would you say?

The arrival for international forces was decided by the UN Security Council, not by Afghanistan. But what we have today in Afghanistan, we have thanks to these soldiers’ presence. And the international forces have defeated the Taliban in Afghanistan. There are still Taliban outside Afghanistan, but in Afghanistan they’ve been defeated. And the soldiers have contributed to the security of their own countries. No country that has soldiers in Afghanistan would have been free of the risk of being attacked. We’re full of gratitude that the soldiers have risked and sometimes sacrificed their lives for us. But they’ve also done so to protect their own countries. Afghanistan is no longer a source of terrorism.

Maybe Afghans will be better off without foreign soldiers?

This is the first time in the history of Afghanistan that foreign soldiers have been welcomed. But now that 10 years have passed, of course Afghans want to see their own soldiers taking care of their security.

Is the Afghan National Army up to the task? According to a  UN report, 90 percent of its soldiers are illiterate; 30 percent are drug addicts.

We have some drug addicts in the ANA, but not 30 percent. Illiteracy remains a problem because two generations of Afghans couldn’t go to school. But now we have a very intensive literacy program for new soldiers, and the percentage of literate soldiers is increasing every month.

A tougher challenge is the police force, with police officers helping or joining the Taliban.

Yes, we have many problems with the police force. We started training them very late, and being a police officer is much more difficult than being a soldier because he’s dealing with the population. He needs to be literate; he needs to know the law. The Taliban are not recruiting police officers. There has been some infiltration of the police by the Taliban, but the majority of police officers don’t help them. Every day we lose five to 10 police officers in the fight against the Taliban.

What is Afghanistan’s foremost success post-2001?

Democracy. We have a constitution and free elections. Twenty-six percent of our MP’s are women. We have the freest press in the region.

Ten years of war, what next?

To date, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have resulted in 236,000 deaths and a cost of $3 trillion to $4 trillion, according to Brown University’s Costs of War project. 2010 was the bloodiest year for the military since the Afghan war began.

Forty-eight countries, from Tonga to Norway, participate in the International Security Assistance Force.

With withdrawal of combat forces from Iraq completed, the international alliance has begun withdrawing soldiers from Afghanistan. This summer the first province — Bamiyan — was handed over to the Afghan National Army.

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Private Danny Chen, 19, who grew up in Manhattan and was deployed to Afghanistan two months ago, was found dead Oct. 3.

The Army is investigating, and preliminary reports suggest suicide — but his family wants to know more.

Family friends have told reporters that Chen was harassed by others at his base, including one apparent attack where he was beaten by fellow soldiers.

Yesterday, Chinatown Councilwoman Margaret Chin, along with other local officials, demanded more details — such as interviews with other soldiers. She said she also wants to find out if Chen, reportedly the only Asian-American soldier in his barracks, had been bullied.

“We demand a full, transparent investigation,” Chin said.

Chen’s body was flown to LaGuardia last Sunday, and his funeral was Thursday on Mulberry Street.

Follow Alison Bowen on Twitter @AlisonatMetro.

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At least nine people were killed and 23 wounded in the four attacks, and a gunbattle around a half-built high-rise building raged on into the evening as NATO and Afghan attack helicopters circled overhead.

The fighters had chosen a strategic and heavily fortified main target for the well-coordinated attacks.
Their ability to shower artillery around the diplomatic district was a clear show of strength at a time when NATO-led forces are claiming significant security gains and preparing for their exit by 2014.

Although the Taliban have attacked multiple targets in Kabul in the past, this is the first time they have organized simultaneous assaults on such separate areas.

“The scale of today’s attack is unprecedented,” said Andrew Exum, fellow at the Center for a New American Security. “There was almost certainly either a breakdown in security among the Afghans with responsibility for Kabul or an intelligence failure.”

Hundreds of students from two schools were stuck near the site of the attack, and terrified parents rushing to rescue their children were stopped by security forces.

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Hoisting a glass of Guinness at Ollie Hayes pub as fiddle music played, Obama thus began a four-nation tour of Europe with a celebration of his ancestral roots. Roars of delight from thousands of rain-lashed people lining the street greeted the president and his wife, Michelle, as their motorcade pulled to a stop in Moneygall.

The sleepy village of 300 was the birthplace of Obama’s great-great-great grandfather, Falmouth Kearney, a shoemaker who left in 1850 to begin a new life in the United States.

This makes Obama, the son of a Kenyan father and Irish-American mother, one of 37 million Americans who claim Irish ancestry — and he was greeted like a long-lost son. The powerful images could help his 2012 re-election campaign.

For Ireland, Obama’s arrival and the visit of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth last week are a welcome distraction from the global attention paid to the country’s financial woes.

Obama will also visit Britain, France and Poland on a week-long trip in which he will discuss such issues as Afghanistan and Pakistan after the killing of Osama bin Laden, the world economy and the “Arab spring” uprisings.

Moneygall is capitalizing on its famous connection, selling everything from Barack Obama fridge magnets to Barack Obama plastic lighters.

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The short-term deployments were ordered by Defense Secretary Robert Gates, and come months before President Barack Obama plans to start withdrawing U.S. forces from the unpopular war.

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