America's North Shore Journal

Afghan National Army troops boarded a C-17 cargo plane at the International Security Assistance Force airport for a flight to Turkey to take part in the first of a series of extensive training opportunities in securing the development and defense of Afghanistan.

The 119 ANA troops are the first group to take part in military training for several weeks of specialized operations. It will be conducted primarily by Turkish forces with assistance from American forces and includes courses in leadership along with the skills necessary to perform in the capacity of a special operations force unit.

Mr Key said it was unlikely Corporal Apiata would come back to New Zealand earlier than expected. “I am sure he is not in any more danger than anybody else,” Mr Key said.

“He is a very brave New Zealand soldier and he wants to be on deployment,” Mr Key told a hastily-called press conference as he confirmed Corporal Apiata’s presence in the photograph.

But Mr Key said he was very disappointed the image had been published unblurred. The New Zealand Herald and its website, along with Fairfax owned sites Stuff.co.nz and dompost.co.nz have all published the photo.

“This is for the safety and lives of New Zealand’s elite soldiers we are talking about,” Mr Key said.

He would not take any action against the media who published the images, saying editors “have to live and die by their own actions.”

“It puts at risk the lives of those individual soldiers because they can be recognised,” he said.

Several videos about the allied nations fighting in Afghanistan

Photo: Lithuanian Major Vaidas Sepkus, the civil military cooperation chief for Provincial Reconstruction Team Chaghcharan, places a knit cap on a Badgha village child Jan. 9.

The Tornado is the British military’s premier fighter bomber. Over Afghanistan, it is providing close air support to Afghan and NATO forces fighting the Taliban.

And the Talibs are being killed by GURRLS!

Since 2003, Hungary’s active participation in the Afghanistan international force has increasingly grown and it has taken on its share of the burden in proportion to its capabilities in supporting its stability. In doing so, it wishes to express that it is not just a recipient of common security but advances it both in NATO and the European Union.