Three deadly attacks in Afghanistan’s capital have killed more than 130 people in just over a week

Afghan officials have pleaded with three American presidents to reconsider their support for Pakistan, which was both receiving billions of dollars in American aid and harboring the leaders of a Taliban insurgency that the United States has struggled to defeat.

The trip was Pence’s first to the war zone as vice president

Only one thing was clear after President Trump’s vague speech: Nobody knows what to do.

A banner headline blasted the president’s decision to extend the U.S. military commitment in Afghanistan as a “flip-flop” that “reverses course.”

In the end, these officials said, Mr. Trump accepted the logic that a “big military” approach was needed to prevent Afghanistan from again becoming a launching pad for terrorism against the United States.

As a candidate, Trump denounced Afghanistan as a “total disaster” and railed that the costly conflict in Central Asia drained enormous resources at a time of more pressing needs at home for American taxpayers.

Trump, who has been accused by lawmakers of dragging his feet on Afghanistan, has settled on a new strategy to carry on the nearly 16-year-old conflict there

A truck bombing near the Afghan presidential palace early Wednesday killed at least 80 people and wounded hundreds

American officials said that 3,000 to 5,000 additional troops, including hundreds of Special Operations forces, could be sent.

But Mr. Trump’s mix of chest thumping and real action — the missile attack and the use of a huge bomb against Islamic militants in Afghanistan — entails serious risks overseas.

The strike was the first combat use of what is formally named the GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast.