Source : Al Arabiya / 03 Mar 2014

Around 33,000 British men and women who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan are turning to alcohol to cope with combat-related stress, according to a recent study by UK researchers.

The statistic means that one in five formerly deployed military personnel are drinking at “harmful levels,” British newspaper the Daily Mail reported on Thursday.

Source : Presstv / 25 Feb 2014

Almost half of the US population believes that the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan was a mistake, a new Gallup poll shows.

The poll found that 49 percent of Americans think the invasion should not have happened while 48 percent believe the opposite.

Source : Reuters / 13 Feb 2014

A three-year-old girl has been diagnosed with the first case of polio since 2001 in the Afghan capital Kabul, the Ministry of Public Health said on Tuesday.

The child, called Sakhina, was a member of the Kuchi nomadic tribe that moves freely across most provinces in Afghanistan and her family was living in the Kasaba district in eastern Kabul.

Source : World Bulletin / 13 Feb 2014

Animal rights campaigners have said that a number of species are under threat from illegal wildlife hunting in Afghanistan, despite regulations that ban hunting.

Afghanistan is home to 150 species of animals and birds at risk of being wiped out, but ongoing conflicts in the country make it almost impossible to monitor them.

Source : AP / 10 Feb 2014

The number of children killed and wounded in Afghanistan’s war jumped by 34 percent last year as the Taliban stepped up attacks across the country and continued to lay thousands of roadside bombs, the United Nations said Saturday.

Overall civilian casualties were up by 14 percent, reversing 2012’s downward trend and making 2013 one of the deadliest years of the 12-year war for civilians.

By Carol J. Williams / The5thestate / 23 Dec 2013

Two thirds of Americans questioned in a recent poll said the 12-year war fought in Afghanistan to cleanse the country of terrorists hasn't been worth the price paid in lives and dollars.

Nevertheless, a majority still favors keeping some U.S. forces in the troubled country even after the military mission ends a year from now, the ABC News/Washington Post poll found.

By AFP / 24 Apr 2013

Civilian casualties in Afghanistan rose by almost 30 percent in the first three months of 2013, a U.N. envoy has said, describing a recent Taliban attack on court staff as a “war crime”.

Jan Kubis, U.N. special representative for Afghanistan, said the “troubling” rise, compared to the same period last year, followed a 12 percent drop in civilian casualties over the whole of 2012.

Source : BBC / 19 Feb 2013

The number of civilian casualties in Afghanistan has fallen for the first time in six years, a UN report says.

The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (Unama) documented 2,754 civilian deaths in 2012, a 12% drop, and 4,805 injuries, a slight rise.

The reduction was attributed to less fighting on the ground, and a decline in suicide attacks and air operations.

But the report also expressed concern about the re-emergence of armed groups, particularly in Afghanistan's north.

By Deb Riechmann | AP | 28 Nov 2012

Hundreds of millions of dollars from Kabul Bank were spirited out of Afghanistan — some smuggled in airline food trays — to bank accounts in more than two dozen countries, according to an independent review released on Wednesday about massive fraud that led to the collapse of the nation’s largest financial institution.