A suicide bomber killed 13 people and wounded at least 20 in an attack on a minibus carrying police cadets in the main city in Afghanistan's east on Wednesday, a government spokesman said.
Ahmadzia Abdulzai, a spokesman for the governor of Nangarhar province in Afghanistan's turbulent east, said the bomber had rammed an explosives-packed car into the bus carrying cadets in Jalalabad city. He said the dead and wounded included police and civilians.
The Canadian CH-47 Chinook transport chopper accident occurred during night operations by the Quebec-based Royal 22nd Regiment in the Horn of Panjwaii. Insurgents were not blamed in the incident.
None of the injuries were considered serious or life threatening at this time, said Maj. David Devenney, the Task Force Kandahar spokesman. Among several dozen passengers was a Canadian journalist who was uninjured.
Three of the wounded were flown by another helicopter to the U.S. Navy-run Role 3 Hospital at Kandahar Airfield. Canadian and other coalition forces secured the crash site.
"I am extremely happy everybody is in good shape," said Brig.-Gen. Dean Milner, the Canadian commander. "The casualties were very minor. They'll be looked at over the next few days."
"It was a standard operation," Milner explained. "We move Chinooks through that battle space all the time and are very deliberate about where we land. We landed on a piece of turf in a riverbed that is fairly straight. But that little piece wasn't and the wheels went cockeyed. As a result, the helicopter rolled, the blades broke, and it finished the roll ending up on its side."
Devenney said that an assessment was being conducted to decide whether the aircraft was salvageable. Initial reports suggested that it had been heavily damaged.
Milner said that the damaged helicopter would have no impact on military operations.
"There will be no loss of operational tempo as we close in on the fighting season which is about to begin because the poppy harvest is almost over," he said.
Monday's accident was the third involving a Canadian helicopter in Afghanistan. Another Chinook was hit by insurgent gunfire and burned after being forced to make a hard landing on Aug. 5, 2010. Eight soldiers were wounded in the crash.
Thirteen months earlier a smaller Canadian CH-146 Griffon helicopter crashed on takeoff in neighbouring Zabul province. Three on board died and three others were injured.
Those who died were: Master Cpl. Pat Audet, 38, of Montreal, and Cpl. Martin Joannette, 25, of St-Calixte, Que., and a British officer.
Another Canadian, military photographer Master Cpl. Darrell Jason Priede, was killed in 2007 when the U.S. Chinook helicopter that he was flying in was apparently shot down in Helmand province. Six other coalition soldiers died in that crash.
Helicopters are one of the main ways to get around southern Afghanistan's rugged terrain. When available they are often the preferred means of transport because the Taliban often mine the roads with homemade explosives.
Canada acquired a small fleet of Chinooks from the U.S. army after the Manley Panel on Afghanistan recommended to Parliament that helicopters were urgently needed to help troops off Kandahar's dangerous roads.
Royal Marine from 42 Commando has been killed in Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence has said.
The marine was killed by a bomb while involved in an operation to search a compound in the Loy Mandeh Wadi area of the Nad Ali district of Helmand province on Sunday.
The marine's next of kin have been informed.
It means the number of British military deaths in operations in Afghanistan since 2001 now stands at 365.
Lieutenant Colonel Tim Purbrick, a spokesman for Task Force Helmand, said the marine, who was from Plymouth-based 42 Commando, had been involved in an operation which was "investigating suspected insurgent activity" in a number of compounds in the Loy Mandeh Wadi area of the Nad Ali district in Helmand Province when he was fatally injured.
He added: "Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends."
Last week, the head of the armed forces said Britain had failed to accurately gauge Taliban resistance to UK troops in Helmand province.
General Sir David Richards told the Commons defence committee UK troops "turned up a hornet's nest" when they moved into south Afghanistan in 2006.
"There was, in some respects, a failure of intelligence despite the efforts to get it right," he said.
About 3,300 British troops took over control of Helmand five years ago.
The government has said it wants all British combat troops to leave Afghanistan by 2015.
In February, Defence Secretary Liam Fox suggested some of the UK 10,000 personnel based there could come home this year if "conditions on the ground" were suitable.
Taliban insurgents are attacking several locations in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar and have wounded at least 11 people.
Provincial spokesman Zalmay Ayoubi said by phone from inside the governor's building that the compound was under attack. There also were reports of gunfire and explosions in other parts of the city.
The violence began shortly after midday Saturday with reports of militants using small-arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades.
A Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility for the attacks, a week after the group announced the start of its annual spring offensive.
The attacks in Kandahar city also come a day after the Taliban issued a statement saying that Osama bin Laden's killing in Pakistan by U.S. forces would give a boost to the insurgency. However, a militant spokesman said Saturday's assault was not a revenge attack.
Kandahar province is a major stronghold of the insurgency in Afghanistan and the birthplace of the Taliban.
Osama bin Laden was killed by a bullet fired by a United States Navy SEAL during a 40-minute helicopter assault on a fortified compound believed to have been purpose-built to hide the al-Qaeda leader.
Despite being the world's most wanted man, pursued by the most advanced military in history, Osama bin Laden evaded capture for almost a decade thanks to a secretive and ruthless protection system.
In the immediate aftermath of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, bin Laden is thought to have moved between Kandahar and Kabul, in Afghanistan, arranging the exit and financial backing of allies.
Three months after the attacks, he survived the aerial bombardment by the US air force of the cave complex in the mountains of Tora Bora, in which he was widely assumed to be hiding.
For almost ten years, it had been generally thought that he and a cabal of close aides slipped across the nearest point of the Pakistani border, probably assisted by rogue Pakistani law enforcement officers.
But a report based on intelligence gained from a detainee in Guantanamo Bay, released just last week by Wikileaks, suggested that bin Laden in fact headed in another direction, towards Jalalabad.
The report suggested that he stayed there in a safe house – while a $25 million (£15 million) bounty hung over his head – before heading towards the remote province of Kunar, in north-east Afghanistan.
It was said that bin Laden escaped with help from a Pakistani militant and cleric called Maulawi Nur Muhammad, who provided up to 50 fighters to escort him and Ayman al-Zawahiri, his deputy.
The al-Qaeda chief is thought to have then stayed in Kunar, a violent and generally ungovernable area, before again crossing the border into Pakistan in late 2002.
Since then, the life of bin Laden – and the activities of US forces assigned to capture him – have remained mysterious, with critics baffled that George Bush, and later Barack Obama, failed to find him.
Known to his close followers as "the sheik", and surrounded by 40 bodyguards, bin Laden was said to have moved with utmost care around the tribal-run border regions between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
It was reported that the personnel protecting bin Laden had an agreed code word that, when uttered, would signify that enemy forces were approaching and that they must martyr themselves.
Reports suggested that on at least one occasion, US troops came very close to bin Laden's compound, prompting intense disquiet among the terrorist leader's circle. But they never came close enough.
For all the billions of dollars ploughed into intelligence, high-tech assaults and drone attacks by the US, bin Laden had on his side an intensely loyal following and a biddable local population that was no friend to Washington.
Bin Laden, a wealthy heir flush with jihadists' cash, was reported to have paid millions of US dollars to local tribesmen, who had already promised to help the US military, to instead assist him and al-Zawahiri in their exile.
At the same time, the White House depended on Pakistan – led for much of the period by the erratic Pervez Musharraf – for assistance, despite widespread knowledge that significant portions of its intelligence service was sympathetic to al-Qaeda.
In recent years bin Laden was rumoured to have suffered from serious kidney problems, leading to frequent rumours of his demise. Yet he persistently re-appeared on video to pass comment on US foreign policy and other world affairs.
Last night it appeared that, in the face of longstanding and intense US attacks on the tribal regions, bin Laden had been forced to flee to the town of Abbottabad, north of Islamabad. There, the intense secrecy surrounding his movements would have been far more easily breached.
His apparent hideout was, for instance, close to a cinema, a police station and a hospital for women and children. In the wilds of the tribal regions his operation might have gone largely unnoticed. But it appeared that working from here, apparently in a mansion with no external communications, where residents burned their rubbish, was too much: too many suspicions were aroused.
The Taliban on Saturday declared the start of a spring offensive in Afghanistan, warning that insurgents plan to attack foreign troops, Afghan security forces and government officials in coming days.
In a statement, the Taliban warned civilians to avoid public gatherings, military bases and convoys, as well as government buildings.
"All Afghan people should bear in mind to keep away from gatherings, convoys and centers of the enemy so that they will not become harmed during attacks of mujahedin against the enemy," the statement said.
The statement said that in addition to troops, the targets of their operation would be high-ranking officials within President Hamid Karzai's government, members of the Cabinet and lawmakers, as well as businessmen working with NATO forces.
United Nations officials, who lost eight staff members in an attack last month in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, appealed to the Taliban not to target noncombatants.
"Parties to the conflict must not deliberately attack, target or kill civilians," said Staffan de Mistura, who heads the U.N. mission in Afghanistan. "I call on the Taliban to carry out their previously stated decision to avoid civilian casualties. Afghan civilians have paid the price of war for too long. It is more urgent than ever that all parties act to prevent this suffering."
North Atlantic Treaty Organization commanders have trumpeted successes in Afghanistan since 30,000 additional U.S. troops arrived last year, although they also predicted a spike in violence with the arrival of the spring and summer fighting season. On Friday, senior military officials and Western diplomats warned of a surge in militant attacks during the coming week.
Violence across Afghanistan hit record levels in 2010, with civilian and military casualties the worst since U.S.-backed Afghan forces dislodged the Taliban regime in 2001.
The Pentagon said in a biannual report Friday that the increase in violence was attributable in part to increased offensives against insurgent havens and mild winter weather that kept insurgents active.
U.S.-led coalition said Tuesday it had killed the second-most-wanted insurgent in Afghanistan, a senior al Qaeda leader from Saudi Arabia who was responsible for setting up terrorist training camps and launching attacks on U.S. and Afghan forces.
The Saudi, identified by the coalition as Abu Hafs Al Najdi, also known as Abdul Ghani, operated mostly from the mountainous Kunar province in northeast Afghanistan. A list of the 85 most wanted terrorists released by the Saudi government in 2009 placed him 21st; that list gave his real name as Salef Nayef Eid al Mahlafi, and put his current age at 27.
In addition to Mr. Najdi, the April 13 airstrike in Kunar's Dangam district bordering Pakistan killed another al Qaeda leader, known as Waqas, the coalition said. It said a total of 25 al Qaeda militants have been eliminated in Afghanistan over the past month. Just a few weeks ago, senior coalition officials had estimated the entire al Qaeda presence in Afghanistan at as low as 50 to 100 fighters.
However, earlier this month, The Wall Street Journal reported that al Qaeda, which by and large had moved out of Afghanistan after the Taliban's downfall in 2001, has returned to set up terrorist training camps in Kunar, Nangarhar and Nuristan provinces along the border with Pakistan's tribal areas. U.S. forces have largely abandoned Nuristan and have withdrawn from many parts of Kunar over the past two years, as the coalition focused its efforts on the southern part of the country.
Although the commander of coalition forces, U.S. Gen. David Petraeus, told reporters earlier this month he doesn't believe al Qaeda is resurging in Afghanistan, some senior U.S. military officers disagree, saying the withdrawals from Nuristan and Kunar have created a vacuum for al Qaeda to come back.
The coalition's Afghanistan target list is classified and the military hasn't released the name of the most-wanted militant. Al Qaeda leaders Osama bin Laden and Ayman al Zawahri are believed to be hiding across the border in Pakistan.
Mr. Najdi "was the second-highest priority in our operations to capture or kill insurgents," said U.K. Army Maj. Tim James, a coalition spokesman in Kabul. "Losing such an important member of al Qaeda in Afghanistan will have a significant impact on their ability to operate in Afghanistan and is a blow to the insurgency."
Mr. Najdi, who had been targeted by the U.S.-led forces since at least 2007, operated a network of insurgents throughout Kunar, organizing attacks on Afghan and U.S. bases, plotting kidnappings of foreigners, running militant training camps and providing financing from Pakistan, the military said.
He was an instrumental link between al Qaeda's leadership in Pakistan and its operations in Afghanistan, and his ability to "provide considerably more funding to insurgent fighters" had allowed the insurgency to obtain more weapons and recruits, the coalition said Tuesday.
Separately, the Afghan Ministry of Justice released the results of its initial inquiry into Monday's escape of hundreds of Taliban prisoners from the Sarpoza prison in the southern city of Kandahar. The report faulted coalition and Afghan forces for failing to notice the removal of large amounts of earth during the digging of the tunnel into the prison, and for failing to spot the movement of a large number of vehicles that ferried out the prisoners early Monday morning.
According to the report, a failure to implement regulations allowed the inmates to move freely through the prison block at night, a circumstance that permitted them to escape through a tunnel that opened into an unlocked cell. This showed that some prison officials were implicated in the plot, the report said.
According to a U.S. military official, 61 of the at least 475 Taliban escapees had been rearrested by Tuesday.
The intelligence gathering and airstrike that led to Mr. Najdi's death were conducted by the U.S. military's secretive Joint Special Operations Command, known as JSOC, which has taken the lead in targeting al Qaeda in Afghanistan, a U.S. official said. In contrast, the Central Intelligence Agency leads the campaign of drone strikes that has killed numerous al Qaeda operatives sheltering across the border in Pakistan.
Many American officials say JSOC, which oversees elite units such as the Army's Delta Force and Navy SEAL Team Six, is their most effective tool to combat al Qaeda in Afghanistan, where the U.S. has far more freedom to strike than in Pakistan. But they also fear that JSOC, with a global mission and commitments in Somalia, Yemen, Iraq and other places, is already stretched thin.
Still, JSOC has counted a series of recent successes against al Qaeda in northeastern Afghanistan. An airstrike in September killed two senior leaders and other al Qaeda operatives who had gathered at a training camp in Kunar. Special Operations forces in December captured another senior al Qaeda operative, Abu Ikhlas al-Masri, who had long operated in and around Kunar. Mr. al-Masri has since provided intelligence about al Qaeda's attempts to reestablish Afghan bases, U.S. officials say.
An audacious jailbreak organised by the Taliban that freed hundreds of prisoners could have a devastating effect on efforts to quell a growing insurgency and underscores the weakness of the Afghan government and its security forces.
The Taliban wasted little time in crowing about how they were able to orchestrate the mass escape from the main jail in Kandahar in Afghanistan's south, freeing about 500 inmates on Monday under the noses of Afghan and foreign security forces.
Analysts now fear the jailbreak will help an emboldened Taliban spread their insurgency despite strenuous efforts by Afghan, U.S. and other foreign troops over more than a year to hit back at militants in their strongholds in the south.
It comes as a blow to both the Afghan government and NATO-led foreign troops who have boasted of recent security gains in Kandahar after months of heavy fighting. The Taliban have said more than 100 of its commanders were among the escapees.
"The jailbreak is likely to have real implications for the upcoming fighting season," said Felix Kuehn, an independent researcher based in Kandahar city.
veteran Afghan air force pilot opened fire inside a military compound at Kabul International Airport early Wednesday, killing an unknown number of Afghan and NATO forces in what might have been another in a series of attacks by Taliban infiltrators, authorities said.
U.S. Master Sgt. Jason Haag, a NATO spokesman, said some NATO forces were killed, but could not say how many.
The pilot, whose identity was not immediately released, began shooting about 11 a.m. after an argument with a foreign colleague, according to a statement released by Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi.
"An Afghan officer opened fire on foreigners after an argument," Azimi said. "For the past 20 years, he has been a military pilot."
Azimi could not give a specific number of deaths and injuries but said the gunman was killed. He did not say whether the foreigner involved in the dispute was a member of NATO coalition forces or whether that person was among the casualties.
The Taliban claimed that it sent the Afghan officer to shoot Afghan and foreign troops at the compound and that he had killed several of both, according to spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid. He did not say how he was informed of the number of casualties.
Maj. Michael Johnson, a spokesman for NATO forces, said they were aware of the shooting but had not yet received details.
Reporters were not allowed into the air force compound, where Afghan troops guarded the doors and no NATO forces were visible. Afghan air force officers declined to comment about the shooting.
The Afghan air force, formerly the Afghan national army air corps, was renamed last year after years of training and upgrades by U.S. forces. The U.S.-led Combined Air Power Transition Force has been working to rebuild and modernize the Afghan air force since 2007, and a number of Afghan pilots and trainees have traveled to the U.S. for English language, instrument and undergraduate pilot training.
The air force numbered about 2,400 as of 2009, a year after they inaugurated their new headquarters at the airport. At the time, President Hamid Karzai said they had been reborn, equipped with 26 new or refurbished aircraft, including transport helicopters and Ukrainian military planes bought with U.S. funding.
The soldier was on an operation to clear improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in the Nahr-e Saraj (South) district of Helmand Province
A gunman in Afghan army uniform opened fire inside Kabul'
s defence ministry Monday, killing two soldiers and wounding seven in an audacious strike at the heart of government claimed by the Taliban.
from a motorbike after a chase across the desert in Helmand province.Protests erupted in Afghanistan again Monday against a Florida pastor's burning of the Quran, making four straight days of demonstrations — some deadly — against the destruction of Islam's holy book in a country struggling to beat back an insurgency led by Taliban religious extremists.
The demonstration in eastern Laghman province briefly threatened to turn into another melee as about 300 protesters brandished sticks and threw stones at police, who in turned started firing shots in the air, according to an Associated Press photographer at the scene.
The protest started in Alingar district and the shouting crowd moved toward the provincial capital of Mihtarlam, where they clashed with officers who wanted to keep them out of the city, said Gen. Abdul Aziz Gharanai, the provincial police chief.
However, the protesters dispersed as officers started firing warning shots and no one was wounded, Gharanai said. The AP photographer also heard no reports of serious injuries.
At least 21 people have been killed in the past three days of protests across the country.
The violence was set off by anger over the March 20 burning of the Quran by a Florida church — the same church whose pastor had threatened to do so last year on the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, triggering worldwide outrage.
The protests began Friday when thousands of demonstrators in the previously peaceful northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif poured into the streets after Friday's Muslim prayer services and overran a U.N. compound, killing three U.N. staff members and four Nepalese guards.
The demonstrations have appeared to awaken a simmering anti-foreigner sentiment in the country, where anger about civilian casualties and international contractors making fortunes off the long-running conflict have worn down the welcome for Western forces over more than nine years of fighting.
Meanwhile, NATO said one of its service members was killed Sunday in an insurgent attack in the east. NATO did not disclose other details or the nationality of the dead. The majority of the troops in the east are American.
The latest death makes a total of 102 NATO service members killed so far this year. In the same period of 2010, 129 NATO troops died.
UN mission in Afghanistan 
has been thrown into a deep crisis after a furious mob of protesters killed and wounded a number of its staff in one of the country's most peaceful cities.Pakistani official says Islamist militants have attacked a terminal in the country's northwest for trucks carrying supplies for NATO and US troops in Afghanistan, killing three Pakistani guards at the site.
Government administrator Akbar Khan said the guards were killed on Friday in the town of Landi Kotal, close to the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. He says the attackers slit the guards' throats.
Taliban militants often attack NATO supply trucks in Pakistan, though the vast majority of the goods are untouched.
Much of the non-lethal supplies for the war effort in Afghanistan come via Pakistan after being unloaded at the Arabian Sea port of Karachi in the south.
In an effort to get closer to the local population, American female soldiers stationed in Afghanistan 
are being encouraged to wear a Muslim headscarf when interacting with civilians. But some question whether the practice constitutes cultural sensitivity or a form of appeasement that is degrading to U.S. soldiers.large-scale helicopter-borne assault into a remote, insurgent-held sanctuary near the border with Pakistan left six U.S. soldiers dead in heavy fighting with Afghan and Pakistani insurgents, U.S. officials said. The operation, which was continuing Thursday, was designed to drive back the enemy in the remote and mountainous border region. One Afghan soldier was also killed in the assault. In this week’s assault, U.S. forces pushed deeper into the valley and closer to the Pakistan border than they had in years, killing large numbers of enemy fighters and uncovering several significant weapons caches, a U.S. military official said.
Names of the fallen..
The six soldiers killed were Sgt. 1st Class Ofren Arrechaga, Staff Sgt. Frank E. Adamski, Spec. Jameson L. Lindskog, Staff Sgt. Bryan A. Burgess, Pfc. Dustin J. Feldhaus and Pvt. Jeremy P. Faulkner.
Prayers for the families of those lost in the fight.
Afghanistan: A team of female Airmen made history here March 30 when the F-15E Strike Eagles of "Dudette 07" blazed down the runway to provide close air support for coalition and Afghan ground forces.
The two-ship formation consisted of all females, two pilots and two weapons system officers, but more importantly, it marked the first combat mission flown from Bagram to be planned, maintained and flown entirely by females.
This mission represents the first combat sortie on record to involve only female Airmen from the pilots and weapons officers to the mission planners and maintainers, said Lt. Col. Kenneth Tilley, the 455th Air Expeditionary Wing historian.
Although the call sign for the mission may have been lighthearted, the sortie was all business calling for the pilots to travel to the Kunar Valley just west of the Pakistan border in support of a large Army operation that was underway.
"I have flown with female pilots before, but this was the first time I have flown in an all female flight," said Maj. Christine Mau, a 455th AEW executive officer. "This wasn't a possibility when I started flying 11-years ago."
While planning of the mission required support from women at all levels such as Capt. Kristen Wehle, the F-15 liaison officer at the combined air operations center, those involved evoked memories of legendary Women's Army Corps pilots and others for inspiration.
"Women's history means a celebration of the equality we have today in the military," said Capt. Jennifer Morton, a 389th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron weapons officer. "It makes me think back and find inspiration from heroes like Col. Jeannie Flynn."
In 1993, then 2nd Lt. Jeannie Flynn became the first female F-15E pilot. Although the Air Force permitted female pilots to enter pilot training in 1976, Lieutenant Flynn went on to become the first female fighter pilot to graduate from the U.S. Air Force Weapons School.
"Since 1993 we have had Air Force female pilots in combat positions, and because of that today I feel as a woman I can have whatever job I want," Morton said.
While Dudette 07 was set up to as an all female mission in honor of Women's History Month, Major Mau said inspiration for today's Airmen aspiring to great heights can come from many different places.
"I think I get a great deal of inspiration from my grandmother (who was a mother seven kids), but many of my role models today are males," she said.
In addition, the pilots never forget the contributions of the maintainers on the ground,
maintainers like Airmen 1st Class Casiana Curry, who enlisted Sept. 11, 2009, and enables the continued support of the warfighters on the ground.
"The four women officers represents only a portion of the women who supported this mission making it the first all female from tasking to completion combat sortie to date," said Capt. Leigh Larkin, s 389th EFS weapons systems officer.
"I thought it was kind of cool and something that I have never seen before," said Staff Sgt. Tamara Rhone, a 455th Expeditionary Aircraft Maintenance Squadron crew chief. "The women throughout time have paved the way for us today and they made it possible for us to be equal as well as respected as individuals. Females are a rare breed on the flight line. It is my hope that more females step up and join the maintenance career field."
The NATO mission -- called Operation Unified Protector-- includes an arms embargo, a no-fly zone and "actions to protect civilians and civilian centers," the alliance said Thursday.
It follows a U.N. Security Council resolution allowing member states to take all necessary measures -- with the exception of foreign occupation -- to protect civilians under the threat of attack in Libya.
Over the weekend, CNN reported that rebels had taken al-Brega, Ras Lanuf and Bin Jawad and reached a town just east of Sirte. But in the last three days, opposition fighters have been pushed back eastward.
Hoekstra: What may be next in Libya Libyan opposition speaks out on tactics Anderson: Gadhafi opposition badly armed Libyan foreign minister resigns
Rebel forces -- hampered by a lack of organization, training and military know-how when compared to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's troops -- have been demanding an end to Gadhafi's almost 42-year rule in Libya.
But they have been facing sustained attacks and have called for the international community to supply them with better and more powerful equipment.
Saddoun El-Misurati, a spokesman for the Libyan opposition in Misrata, described intense fighting and casualties in the city.
"We managed to get two shipments so far of badly needed medical supplies to the hospitals. But obviously we still need more supplies in dealing with the day-to-day casualties and the situation on the ground," he said.
"Our greatest hope will rely mainly on the support of the international coalition forces in the form of change of tactic from the air to (not only) target tanks and heavy artillery of Gadhafi's forces but also take out groups of snipers positioned on buildings and in the city."
Rebel forces have lost Bin Jawad and the key oil town of Ras Lanuf and are backed up to the al-Brega area, opposition member Col. Ahmed Bani said Wednesday.
Ajdabiya, which is east of al-Brega, will be prepared as a "defense point" if the withdrawal continues farther east, he said.
Weather conditions prevented a NATO-led coalition from launching more airstrikes in an attempt to weaken Gadhafi's ability to attack civilians, a U.S. representative said Wednesday.
While U.S. and British officials say no decision has been made about whether to arm the opposition, a U.S. intelligence source said the CIA is in the country to increase the "military and political understanding" of the situation.
"Yes, we are gathering intel firsthand, and we are in contact with some opposition entities," the source told CNN.
But Robert Baer, a former CIA operative, said on CNN's "AC360" Wednesday night the agency's effectiveness might be limited.
Obama's Libya doctrine Gergen: Libya an improvised intervention Libya state TV slams alleged rape victim
Libya
"I would rather see the Defense Department on the ground, if you have to be there, training," Baer said. "The CIA hates covert action. It rarely works. It worked in Afghanistan, but other times it's almost impossible to do."
Paul Wolfowitz, a former U.S. deputy secretary of defense, said he thinks "we should be doing everything we possibly can to support the opposition," and a prolonged stalemate would be bad for both Libyans who continue to suffer and for the United States.
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