Wayne Mapp has confirmed the WikiLeaks report of a missile threat faced by an RNZAF Hercules in Afghanistan last year.

Murray McCully says Afghanistan's Bamiyan Province, where NZ troops have been since 2003, will be ready to stand on its own before Hamid Karzai's 2014 deadline.

The strategy sits for now on a table in a locked-down Afghan capital: Hand over security in all 34 provinces to the government by the end of 2014.

Brigadier Richard Felton points to the maps on the wall of his office in Lashkar Gah, dotted with markers for impending military operations over the long, hot, Afghan fighting season.

The three Gurkhas who died stood no chance. Two - believed to be British nationals - died in the operations room when it came under attack by a rocket-propelled grenade.

General David Petraeus has formally assumed command of the 130,000-strong international force in Afghanistan.

New Zealand defence personnel and a Television New Zealand film crew in Afghanistan were involved in a bomb scare while on bomb disposal patrol.

David Petraeus has become Obama's third commander of the war since April last year.

General Stanley McChrystal deserved to be fired as the United States commander in Afghanistan, writes Gwynne Dwyer.

The Nato commander in Afghanistan has been summoned to Washington over a series of disrespectful remarks he and his staff made to Rolling Stone magazine.