A civilian cargo plane crashed shortly after taking off from the sprawling US Bagram airbase in Afghanistan with the Taliban claiming responsibility for “shooting down” the jet.

Reports of Sarin being used during an operation outside Damascus on 19 March came from Israel

A huge airlift to bring thousands of tons of military equipment back from Afghanistan to the UK has begun, ahead of the full withdrawal of British troops by the end of next year.

Thousands of recruits are quitting the newly formed Afghan police and armed forces every month, raising fears over their ability to protect the emerging democracy when coalition troops leave the country in less than two years' time. For every 10 new soldiers recruited to the Afghan National Army (ANA), at least three are lost because they have been sacked, captured or killed in action, new figures have revealed. British officials admit that current "attrition rates", with more than 5,000 soldiers quitting every month, threaten the force's long-term effectiveness.

The latest in a string of civilian deaths causing friction with the Afghan leadership

British soldiers fighting in Afghanistan are part of a campaign that attempted to “impose an ideology foreign to the Afghan people” and was “unwinnable in military terms”, according to a damning report by the Ministry of Defence.

A suicide bomber blew himself up at a Defence Ministry gate in Kabul today, killing nine civilians during a visit to Afghanistan by US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel, underlining the insurgent threat as NATO troops prepare to leave.

Deaths came during fight with insurgents in Uruzgan province

Nato countries are considering keeping up to 12,000 troops in Afghanistan after 2014, the date when foreign combat forces were due to leave the war-torn country.

US General John Allen, who oversaw the Nato war effort in Afghanistan until earlier this month, has decided to retire instead of pursuing his nomination as head of the military alliance.

A Nato airstrike has killed as many as nine Afghan civilians in an eastern province near the Pakistani border.

A police truck packed with officers and detainees struck a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan's largest city, killing 10 of those aboard, officials said today.

An Afghan policewoman shot and killed an American adviser outside the police headquarters in Kabul today, the latest in a rising tide of insider attacks by Afghans against their foreign allies, senior Afghan officials said.