There has been an attack at the United States Consulate in Herat, Afghanistan. The AP is reporting a car explosion. Nine—including four women and two policemen—are reportedly wounded and sources say there is ongoing gun fighting outside of the building.

"I wouldn’t take it back ever," Jesse Cottle says, recalling that fateful day in 2009 when he stepped on an IED and blew off both his legs.

This video was captured a few years back, but the metaphor remains as stingingly apt as ever.

Suicide bombers just attacked the Indian consulate in Afghanistan. Twenty-three people were injured and nine children died in the blast. Yesterday the State Department issued a travel alert and announced that 22 US embassies would be closed on Sunday due to fear of an al Qaeda attack.

When the violence, strife, and cold-blooded realpolitik world of international relations starts to get you down, take heart in this truth: no matter where you go— from Kansas City to Kabul— college kids will be angry, shouty, and dumb.

Capt. Bronson had been away from home for nearly nine months, six of which were spent serving in Afghanistan, when he received word that he will be returning to his family three weeks early.

The presidential palace in Kabul, Afghanistan was attacked early Tuesday morning. Gunfire and several large explosions were reported at the palace and the buildings surrounding it, including the CIA's Afghan headquarters. The Taliban texted reporters, many of whom were at the palace already, to claim responsibility.

How are those Afghanistan peace talks going? Well, yesterday Taliban insurgents attacked an American convoy, and President Hamid Karzai suspended security talks with the U.S. So... not great.

Several large explosions were heard outside of NATO's headquarters in Afghanistan at Kabul's international airport. Details are sparse, but there are reports of ongoing gunfights and rocket attacks.

One night in March of 2012, US Army Staff Sergeant Robert Bales walked out of Camp Belambay and shot and killed 16 innocent Afghan civilians in two nearby villages. Yesterday, he stood in court and fully admitted to his crimes— without offering any explanation as to why he did them.

As part of a deal to avoid the death penalty, US Staff Sergeant Robert Bales will plead guilty to slaughtering 16 villagers in Afghanistan last year. The plea bargain will require Bales to publicly discuss the attack for the first time.

The Red Cross office in Jalalabad is under attack after a suicide bomber blew himself up at the gate of the ICRC while two other insurgents entered the building. So far, six staff members have been rescued safely.

Speaking for the first time in Afghanistan since it was revealed that he had been taking massive payoffs from the CIA, Afghan president Hamid Karzai reiterated his confidence that the payoffs would continue and that the flow of cash for bribes and appeasing local warlords was absolutely necessary for continuing stability in Afghanistan.

The seven Americans killed in Monday's plane crash in Afghanistan (horrifying video of which was captured on a dashboard camera) have been identified. Officials are still investigating the crash, but NATO has denied the Taliban's claims of responsibility.

In order to gain access to Afghan president Hamid Karzai's inner circle, the CIA secretly sent tens of millions of dollars to Karzai's office for over a decade. The money, all straight cash, of course, was delivered approximately every month and was packed in suitcases, backpacks, and plastic bags.

The Army's clearly bored contingent of public affairs soldiers in Afghanistan would like to introduce you to Bagram Batman, the star of this strangely amusing series of safety PSAs that's DOD-sponsored... and taxpayer-funded.

An unnamed FBI official has told CBS News that at least one of the explosive devices detonated in Boston yesterday appears to have been improvised from a conventional pressure-cooker. Unnamed law enforcement officials don't exactly have the strongest record of credibility in the immediate aftermath of events like these, but federal authorities are well-acquainted with this type of IED.

The Air Force has reversed a policy of reporting drone strikes in Afghanistan and has wiped the information from past reports that were on its website as well. Last October, the Air Force Central Command began publishing reports of the strikes from remote piloted aircraft as part of an effort to "provide more detailed information on RPA ops in Afghanistan." After releasing statistics for each month through January, the February report contained no information regarding drone strikes, and the older reports have each had their drone strike information removed from the website (the Air Force is apparently unfamiliar with the wonders of Archive.org).

The government of Afghanistan has banned elite American forces from operating in the province of Maidan Wardak, claiming that Afghans working with US special forces have been involved with the torture and killing of villagers in the area. The province, which is adjacent to the Afghan capital of Kabul, has been a strategic buffer against the Taliban and key to the defense of the capital.

During his recent television interview about serving in Afghanistan, Prince Harry is forced to cut his answer short when Camp Bastion's resident Mister Softee suddenly shows up.