In a blunt assessment of the war in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal declared in a TV interview Thursday that "nobody is winning," though he also pointed to progress in stopping the momentum of insurgents.

The assessment by McChrystal, the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, comes a day after President Obama, while hosting Afghan President Hamid Karzai at the White House, predicted the war will get worse before it gets better.

McChrystal was responding to a question posed in an interview that aired on PBS' "News Hour."

"I think I would be prepared to say nobody is winning, at this point," McChrystal said. "Where the insurgents, I think, felt that they had momentum a year ago, felt that they were making clear progress, I think that's stopped."

Now it is the U.S. and Afghan forces that have "made a lot of progress," he said.

"I think the insurgency is serious. And it's serious because it has a relative reach around the country ... so it can bring a lot of violence on the Afghan people. It's also not popular."

U.S. and Afghan forces are coming off the relative success of a major offensive in the Taliban stronghold of Marjah intended to sweep the enemy out of that region and restore stability to the local population. A similar approach is planned later this year for Kandahar.

On Wednesday, Obama spoke with Karzai at his side.

"What I've tried to emphasize is the fact that there is going to be some hard fighting over the next several months," Obama told reporters in the White House after meeting with Karzai in the Oval Office.

"There is no denying the progress," Obama said. "Nor, however, can we deny the very serious challenges still facing Afghanistan."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON -- The failed bombing in New York's Times Square is a possible signal that militant leaders in Pakistan have shifted their focus to targets in the U.S. and other Western countries instead of sticking to their home base, according to U.S. counterterrorism officials.

The attack, they also warned, could be only the first by terrorist groups that seek to avoid detection by using simpler methods that are more independently planned. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case publicly.

U.S. investigators and intelligence agencies are trying to establish whether accused bomber Faisal Shahzad was trained or recruited for the Times Square operation by any Pakistan-based terrorist organization, including the Pakistani Taliban. Shahzad, a U.S. citizen of Pakistani descent, spent five months in Pakistan before returning to the United States in February and preparing his attack.

Shahzad has told investigators that he trained in the lawless tribal areas of Waziristan, where both Al Qaeda and the Pakistani Taliban operate. He was arrested aboard an Emirates Airlines jet in New York just minutes before it was scheduled to take off for Dubai.

A senior military official told The Associated Press that investigators believe Shahzad had bomb-making training in Pakistan, sponsored in part by elements of the Pakistani Taliban.

If those suspicions prove correct, it suggests that groups based in Pakistan, including the Taliban along the Afghan border, may be taking on a more global approach after years of focusing attacks largely on government or coalition forces in their region.

That focus could stem from the Taliban's continued close association with senior Al Qaeda leaders, who are believed to be hiding in the lawless regions on the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan, said one former Obama administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is continuing.

This former official said the Pakistan Taliban may be another potential Al Qaeda affiliate that wants the U.S. out of Afghanistan and the Pakistan Army out of their villages. After months of intensified attacks from drone aircraft, mainly by the CIA in a classified program, Taliban leaders may be more intent on going after the U.S.

One counterterrorism official said the groups were "deadly enemies of the United States" before the U.S. began destroying their leadership, fighters, and camps from the air.

The counterterrorism officials say the Times Square attempt also shows a continuing shift to opportunistic attacks by the Pakistani Taliban and other militant groups that don't have much money for overseas operations. So they use whatever method they can afford, wherever they happen to find a willing operative. As a result, U.S. authorities must figure out how to deal with less predictable patterns of behavior.

The officials say one major concern is that terrorist groups could send people to the U.S. to train homegrown extremists instead of people going to Pakistan or elsewhere for training.

Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said the alleged bomber's possible links to the Pakistani Taliban will not change the U.S. approach to Pakistan or support for Pakistan's step-by-step approach to confronting internal terrorism threats.

"We are in the passenger seat, they are behind the wheel," Morrell said. "They are the ones who are going to determine the direction, the pace, the speed of their operations."

Morrell said he had no information on whether the suspect trained at a terrorist camp in North Waziristan, a sanctuary for militants who attack U.S. forces in Afghanistan. He said the possible link would not increase pressure to deal with North Waziristan more quickly.

"There is a recognition on everybody's part that all the terrorist safe havens in Pakistan must be dealt with," Morrell said.

Juan Zarate, President George W. Bush's former deputy national security adviser, agreed that the Times Square attack may mark a new chapter in the terrorist threat. "The model may be shifting here, in part because they may have made a calculus that it's much more difficult to have a big ticket attack, and secondly, they may have moved to a model of disruption rather than destruction," he said.

He added that the sloppiness of the attack has raised questions, as U.S. officials work to unravel Shahzad's possible ties to terrorist organizations in Pakistan.

"If he was trained, he was trained pretty poorly," said Zarate, who is now a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

He said it may be, in part, be a reflection of the pressure that the U.S. and the Pakistani military has put on the militant cells in Pakistan. It may suggest the poorer quality of training available or the lack of higher quality recruits that they've been able to attract.

"Maybe they're weren't quite sure about this guy, so they gave him a little bit of training and, kind of threw spaghetti at the wall," said Zarate.

KABUL (AP) — Militants attacked the provincial governor's compound in western Afghanistan on Wednesday, sparking street battles that killed at least five would-be suicide bombers, authorities said.

The Afghan Interior Ministry said police killed the bombers before they were able to carry out their attacks in Zaranj in Nimroz province, in extreme southwestern Afghanistan along the Iranian border.

At least five police officers were killed or wounded in the fighting, said the provincial governor, Gulam Dastagar Ezad.

"The fighting was very serious and they tried to enter (the compound)," Ezad told The Associated Press.

He said one surviving attacker was holed up in a house, but that the fighting had died down.

The deputy police chief in Nimroz, Musa Rasooli, said militants were targeting the provincial governor's compound.

Nimroz province is a major trafficking route for Afghanistan's huge opium trade. Some insurgents fled into Nimroz province earlier this year when thousands of U.S., NATO and Afghan troops conducted an offensive to rout the Taliban from neighboring Helmand province.

ISLAMABAD — Two new videos from the Pakistani Taliban appear to show their leader alive and refuting earlier American and Pakistani claims that he was killed in a U.S. missile strike earlier this year, monitoring groups said Monday.

The videos featuring Hakimullah Mehsud surfaced over the weekend after an attempted car bombing in New York City, and were the strongest evidence yet that he had survived the January missile attack.

They underscore the patchy nature of intelligence gathering from the remote, isolated Pakistani tribal regions where Taliban, al-Qaida and other militant groups have congregated.

In the clips, both apparently dated in April, Mehsud promises attacks on major U.S. cities, but officials have played down any Taliban links to the scare in Times Square.

One of the videos, broadcast on Pakistani television, shows Mehsud sitting in between two masked, armed men. In the background is a banner featuring crossed swords and an Arabic verse.

Speaking in Pashto, but with English subtitles, Mehsud assures viewers he was not killed in a missile strike or any other way, referring to specific reports of his death as lies and propaganda.

"(Praised be to God), on the 4th day of April 2010, I give good news to the Muslim (world) about being alive and healthy," Mehsud says in the nearly 9 minute clip.

The second clip is 2 minutes, 19 seconds long, and has a still picture of Mehsud next to a map of the United States showing explosions in three cities coast to coast, according to IntelCenter, a U.S.-based militant media monitor.

The map is not detailed enough to identify which cities.

A voice that sounds like Mehsud's says the tape was recorded on April 19. Speaking Urdu, he says the group's main targets from now on are U.S. cities, and that "good news will be heard within some days or weeks."

U.S. and Pakistani officials had been confident until recently that a January missile strike had killed Mehsud somewhere along the border dividing South Waziristan and North Waziristan tribal regions. The Taliban, however, had consistently denied that Mehsud was killed, but they refused to provide evidence that he was alive on grounds it would endanger his security.

Last week, four Pakistani intelligence officials said the spy networks had determined that Mehsud was alive after all after getting new information from electronic surveillance and reports from sources in the field, including from inside the Taliban. One of them said Mehsud was believed to have been wounded in the attack but had largely recovered.

Another intelligence officials also said Mehsud was no longer the major force in the Taliban movement, which has carried out scores of attacks in Pakistan in recent years and is allied with al-Qaida and militants in Afghanistan fighting U.S. and NATO troops.

And in Washington last week, Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell said he had seen "no evidence" that Mehsud "is operational today or is executing or exerting authority over the Pakistan Taliban as he once did."

Neither official explained Mehsud's alleged loss of clout, but the militant network has been pummeled over the last six months by relentless U.S. missile attacks and Pakistan army offensives that have pushed it from once-secure bases along the border.

The officials all spoke on condition of anonymity because the spy agencies do not allow their operatives to be named in the media.

National Security Adviser James Jones apologized Monday for telling a joke last week that depicted a member of the Taliban getting tricked by a Jewish merchant looking to make a sale. 

"I wish that I had not made this off the cuff joke at the top of my remarks, and I apologize to anyone who was offended by it," he said in a written statement. 

Jones, a retired general, used the lengthy joke to break the ice before his address last Wednesday at an event honoring the 25th anniversary of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Interestingly, it was not included in the official White House-provided transcript of the speech. 

But White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs on Monday said nobody was trying to cover up what Jones said. 

"It was obviously an on-camera speech. There was no attempt to deceive," Gibbs said. 

The Jones joke got some big laughs out of the room last week -- the institute is generally a pro-Israel organization -- but Jones' opening afterward attracted some attention in the Israeli press. Guests told the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz that it could have been inappropriate. 

Jones, in his written statement, said the joke "distracted from the larger message I carried that day: that the United States commitment to Israel's security is sacrosanct." 

The security adviser opened his remarks last Wednesday by saying, in a deadpan voice, he wanted to "set the stage" by telling a "story that I think is true" about something that happened recently in southern Afghanistan. 

Here's what he said: 

"A member of the Taliban was separated from his fighting party and wandered around for a few days in the desert, lost, out of food, no water. He looked on the horizon and he saw what looked like a little shack, and he walked toward that shack and as he got to it, turned out that it was a shack, a store, a little store owned by a Jewish merchant. And the Taliban warrior went up to him and said, 'I need water, get me some water.' And the merchant said, 'I'm sorry, I don't have any water, but would you like to buy a tie? We have a nice sale of ties today.' 

"Whereupon the Taliban erupted into a stream of language that I can't repeat about Israel, about Jewish people, about the man himself, about his family -- and just saying 'I need water, you try to sell me ties, you people don't get it.' 

"And passively, the merchant stood there until this Taliban was through with his diatribe and said, 'Well, I'm sorry but I don't have water for you and I forgive you for all of the insults you've levied against me, my family, my country, but I will help you out. If you go over that hill and walk about two miles there's a restaurant there, and they have all the water you'll need.' 

"And the Taliban, instead of saying thanks, still muttering under his breath, disappears over the hill -- only to come back about an hour later and walking up to the merchant and says, 'Your brother tells me I need a tie in order to get into the restaurant.'" 

The joke went unnoticed for a couple days but has since been picked up on several Web sites -- and then Ha'aretz published a write-up Monday on the fallout. One source told the Israeli newspaper that it "demonstrated a lack of sensitivity" and questioned what would happen if he told a "black joke" before a crowd of African Americans.

Click here to see the video of Jones' joke. 

The supreme leader of the Taliban, Mullah Mohammed Omar, has indicated that he and his followers may be willing to hold peace talks with western politicians.

In an interview with The Sunday Times, two of the movement’s senior Islamic scholars have relayed a message from the Quetta shura, the Taliban’s ruling council, that Mullah Omar no longer aims to rule Afghanistan. They said he was prepared to engage in “sincere and honest” talks.

A senior U.S. military source said the remarks reflected a growing belief that a “breakthrough” was possible. 

“There is evidence from many intelligence sources [that] the Taliban are ready for some kind of peace process,” the source said.

At a meeting held at night deep inside Taliban-controlled territory, the Taliban leaders told this newspaper that their military campaign had only three objectives: the return of sharia (Islamic law), the expulsion of foreigners and the restoration of security.

“[Mullah Omar] is no longer interested in being involved in politics or government,” said Mullah “Abdul Rashid”, the elder of the two commanders, who used a pseudonym to protect his identity. 

Continue reading at The Sunday Times

PESHAWAR, Pakistan -- Up to 71 civilians were killed in a weekend strike by Pakistani jets near the Afghan border, survivors and a government official said Tuesday -- a rare confirmation of civilian casualties that risks undercutting public support for the fight against militants.

The government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject, said authorities had already handed out the equivalent of $125,000 in compensation to families of the victims in a remote village in the Khyber tribal area.

Speaking Monday, army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas denied that any of the dead were civilians, saying the air force had intelligence that militants were gathering at the site of the strike, which took place Saturday. The victims were initially reported to be suspected militants.

Two survivors interviewed Tuesday in hospital gave a detailed account of the attack.

They said most of the victims were killed when they were trying to rescue people trapped by an earlier strike on the house of a village elder.

"This house was bombed on absolutely wrong information," said Khanan Gul Khan, a resident of the village who was visiting a relative in hospital in Peshawar, the main town in the northwest. "This area has nothing to do with militants."

He said 68 people were killed and many more wounded. The political official said Monday that the families of 71 victims had been compensated, but did not identify them.

Reports of significant civilian casualties in the strike Saturday have appeared in the local media in recent days.

An editorial Tuesday in Dawn, a respected English-language daily, said it was clear that the dead had no links to the militants and that the incident "strengthens the hands of the Taliban."

"Such actions defy description and an explanation is in order from those who ordered the assault," it said.

The Pakistani army, under heavy pressure from the United States, has moved forcefully against Taliban and al-Qaida militants in the northwest over the last 18 months. It regularly reports killing scores of militants in airstrikes, but rarely, if ever, reports on civilian deaths.

Independent accounts of the attacks are rare because reporters are barred from much of the region.

JALAL-ABAD, Kyrgyzstan -- Kyrgyzstan's ousted president says he is willing to resign if his security is guaranteed.

Kurmanbek Bakiyev, who fled the capital amid bloody protests last week, made the statement hours after holding a rally with about 5,000 supporters that seemed aimed at gauging his ability to resist the self-declared provisional government.

In his home village of Teyit, he said at a news conference that "I will go into retirement if security is guaranteed for me and my relatives."

There was no immediate response from the interim authorities in Bishkek, who earlier Tuesday said Bakiyev would be arrested if he did not return to the capital. 

The United States and Russia both have military bases in Kyrgyzstan and developments are being watched with concern in both Washington and Moscow.

Bakiyev fled the capital to his native south last Wednesday after a protest rally in the capital erupted into shooting and chaos; at least 83 people were killed. Protesters stormed government building and opposition leaders declared themselves in control.

The opposition initially had guaranteed Bakiyev safe passage out of the country if he stepped down.

On Tuesday he said "I am willing to negotiate," but it was not clear what possibilities he would be willing to discuss.

Beknazarov said Tuesday that his government has ordered Bakiyev stripped of the usual presidential immunity. He also said the country's constitutional court has been suspended because of unspecified violations and that the chairman of the Supreme Court had been dismissed.

The U.S. base, at the capital's international airport, is a key piece in the NATO military campaign against the Taliban in Afghanistan. The base provides refueling flights for warplanes over Afghanistan and is a transit point for troops.