Ahmad Masud was 12 years old when his father, the legendary anti-Taliban military commander known as the "Lion of Panjshir," was killed by two Al-Qaeda suicide bombers in northern Afghanistan on September 9, 2001.
President Hamid Karzai has announced seven areas in which Afghan forces will take over security duties, the first step toward a NATO-backed goal of having Afghan police and soldiers take control of security throughout the country by 2014.
As reports of voting irregularities continue to pile up, casting a shadow over the country's still-untallied presidential election, key European countries have called for an international conference to discuss Afghanistan's future.
