Afghanistan faces difficult year as US/Nato combat mission ends

FORMER US presidential candidate John McCain, who visited Kabul over Christmas, has warned that Afghanistan faces a potentially major upsurge in Taliban violence in 2015, including the possibility of Peshawar-style attacks on schoolchildren. His intervention coincided with the Dec 31, 2014, end of 13 years of US and Nato-led combat mission in Afghanistan.

From Jan 1, the Afghan army took lead day-to-day responsibility for security in the country with the remaining contingent of around 13,000 US and Nato forces stationed primarily for training purposes …