Members of the Afghan army are forging secret alliances with the Taliban, threatening to undermine the ability of Afghan authorities to maintain control just as NATO troops prepare to hand over power to the country's security forces, Britain's Sunday Times reported. 

In Ghazni province an hour from capital Kabul, Afghan army lieutenant Mohammad Wali admitted to the newspaper that he and a local Taliban commander were working together. (The Sunday Times operates behind a paywall)

"We lost seven men in an ambush when I first arrived at the base," Wali, who commands 18 men, told The Times. "So I thought, why risk my life when there's another way?"

The two share intelligence about military operations and plan to loot Nato supply convoys and divide-up the proceeds, the newspaper reported. 

Wali told the newspaper that he met the local Taliban chief in a bazaar, where the two agreed a ceasefire and plans to ambush NATO convoys on the Kabul-Kandahar highway.

"The plan is simple," Wali told the newspaper. "When the Taliban attack the convoys we stay in our bases. If the Taliban capture something valuable then they share it with us later."

Local Taliban commander Mohammad Hassan told The Times that he had hit dozens of convoys in this way.

Forget protests: NATO summit's problem is Afghanistan

Around 20 percent of NATO supply convoys come under attack in Afghanistan, the newspaper reported. NATO and the government of President Hamid Karzai have down-played down the significance of such ceasefires and informal agreements, it added.

However, at least one recently returned officer said such agreements seemed to be commonplace. 

"In almost every combat outpost I visited, troopers reported to me they had intercepted radio or other traffic between (Afghan forces) and local Taliban making mini non-aggression deals," Lt. Col. Daniel Davis told the newspaper.

NYT: US-led imperative in peril as trained Afghans turn enemy

In its own internal assessments, NATO acknowledged that that there has been a "conspicuous increase" in intelligence indicating cooperation between the Nato-trained Afghan security and the Taliban, according to the newspaper. 

The Pentagon has said that the performance of the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) are key to the success of the handover.  

"The ANSF, now responsible for leading security for almost half of Afghanistan’s population, partners with (NATO forces in Afghanistan) on nearly 90 percent of all coalition operations, of which the ANSF is the lead for more than 40 percent of those partnered operations," according to the Pentagon's 'Report on Progress and Stability in Afghanistan.'

Motorcycle bomber kills 10 in eastern Afghanistan

Despite the Pentagon's claims, almost all of the joint activities were simple operations, Michael O’Hanlon, a defense expert at the Brookings Institution, who visited Afghanistan last week, told The Times. 

Reports that some Afghan security officials are colluding with insurgents is sure to cause worry as NATO nations meet in Chicago to discuss the future of the war-torn country once 130,000 NATO troops leave.

While some troops from NATO countries will most probably stay behind after 2014, local forces will be expected to bear the brunt of the fighting and security operations, and stop the country from sliding into civil war. 

About 3,000 foreign soldiers have died in Afghanistan since the war began after the September 11, 2001 attacks.

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Updated at 5:20 a.m. ET: KABUL - Gunmen shot dead a top Afghan peace negotiator in the capital Kabul on Sunday, police said, dealing a massive blow to the country's attempts to negotiate a peace deal with Taliban insurgents. 

Maulvi Arsala Rahmani was one of the most senior members on Afghanistan's High Peace Council, set up by President Hamid Karzai two years ago to open talks with insurgents. 

"He (Rahmani) was stuck in heavy traffic when another car beside him opened fire," said General Mohammad Zahir, head of the investigations unit for Kabul police. 

Massoud Hossaini / AFP - Getty Images

Arsalan Rahmani's death on Sunday was seen as a major blow to Karzai's U.S.-backed peace efforts.

Rahmani, one of about 70 influential Afghans and former Taliban appointed by Karzai to try to reconcile with the insurgents, was on his way to a meeting with lawmakers and other officials in a government-run media center in the heavily barricaded diplomatic center of Kabul. 

"His driver did not immediately realise that Rahmani had been killed," police official Zahir told Reuters, adding that no one had been arrested in connection with the shooting. 

No group took responsibility for the attack. 

'Frustrated': Dad of Taliban prisoner Bowe Bergdahl takes matters into own hands

Rahmani was essential to the peace process, a BBC News producer in Kabul quoted an Afghan legislator as saying.  

"(The) killing of Rahmani is the work of those who are against Peace Process. Rahmani was the backbone of (the) peace process," BBC News producer Bilal Sarwary quoted MP Mirwais Yasini as saying in a tweet.

Rahmani served as minister of higher education during the Taliban regime, which ruled Afghanistan for five years and sheltered al-Qaida before being driven out of power in the U.S.-led invasion in late 2001.  He was one of several former members of the Taliban who were removed from a U.N. blacklist in July 2011. The decision by a U.N. committee eliminated a travel ban and an assets freeze against Rahmani and the others -- a move seen as key to promoting the peace effort.

Afghan president says civilian deaths could render US pact 'meaningless'

NATO in Afghanistan condenmed the killing.

"The only possible aim of this attack is to intimidate those, who like Rahmani, want to help make Afghanistan a better place for its citizens and the region," it said in a statement. "This attack is clear evidence that those who oppose the legitimate government of Afghanistan have absolutely no interest in supporting the peace process on any level but through murder, thuggery, and intimidation."

The head of the peace council and former Afghan president, Burhanuddin Rabbani, was assassinated by a suicide bomber last year. 

In separate news, U.K. officials announced that two British servicemen were shot by members of the Afghan police force

The Ministry of Defence said the two had been providing security near a base in the Lashkar Gah in Helmand province.

Reuters, The Associated Press and msnbc.com staff contributed to this report. 

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IntelCenter / AFP - Getty Images

This image taken from a Taliban video and provided by IntelCenter on December 7, 2010, appears to show U.S. soldier Bowe Bergdahl.

WASHINGTON -- The father of Bowe Bergdahl, a U.S. soldier held prisoner by the Taliban since 2009, is so frustrated that more than a year of covert diplomacy has been unable to free his son that he is learning the Pashto language so he can contact militants directly.

Speaking out about his son's case after a long silence, UPS worker Bob Bergdahl urged President Barack Obama's administration to push harder for his release. 

The soldier's father added that he intends to take matters into his own hands, studying Pashto -- the language spoken in southern Afghanistan -- reaching out to regional experts and contacting the media-savvy Taliban through its website.

"I feel that I have to do my job as his father," he said. "I'm working toward a diplomatic and humanitarian solution."

Bob Berghdal said he and his wife Jani are disappointed their son, now 26, remains in danger after almost three years of captivity.

"We believe that Bowe's specific situation is not being addressed," Bergdahl told Reuters in an interview.

Peace talks suspended
The missing serviceman's fate is tied up in U.S. efforts to broker a peace deal between the Taliban and the Afghan government, a high-level, high-risk diplomatic initiative which appeared to be on the cusp of a breakthrough before the Taliban suspended preliminary talks in March.

In a separate interview with the Idaho Mountain Express, Bob Bergdahl said there was "a dynamic here that has to change."

"Everybody is frustrated with how slowly the process has evolved," he added. 

Report: Secret US program releases Afghan insurgents

Bob Bergdahl told the newspaper that swapping Taliban prisoners at Guantanamo for his son represents a "win-win" for the United States. He said in addition to his son's safe return, the United States could foster good will with the Afghan people.

Bergdahl, of Hailey, Idaho, was stationed in Paktika province, a hotbed of militant activity, when he disappeared in unclear circumstances on June 30, 2009. He is believed to be held by the Haqqani network, an insurgent group affiliated with the Taliban, probably somewhere in Pakistan.

The family appears even more frustrated that prospects for progress seem to have dimmed in Washington, where the idea of negotiating with the shadowy militant group has exposed the White House to political attack in the run-up to the presidential elections.

For months, U.S. negotiators were seeking to arrange the transfer of five Taliban detainees held at Guantanamo Bay military prison to the Gulf state of Qatar. The transfer was intended as one of a series of confidence-building measures designed to open the door to political talks between the Taliban and Afghan President Hamid Karzai's government.

US offers 'safe passage' to Afghan Taliban leaders

That move -- at the center of U.S. strategy for ending the long, costly conflict in Afghanistan -- was also supposed to lead directly to Bowe's release. The Taliban has consistently called for the United States to release those held at Guantanamo Bay in exchange for freeing Western prisoners.

The Guantanamo transfer proposal, which would have required notification to Congress, ground to a halt when the Taliban rejected U.S. conditions designed to ensure transferred Taliban would not slip away and re-emerge as military leaders.

While most American officials do not expect that proposal to be taken up again in earnest in the months leading up to the Nov. 6 presidential election, they are exploring alternative steps they hope might rekindle the process.

The prospect of a quick start to peace talks grows more unlikely just as questions mount about what the West, after over 10 years of war in Afghanistan, will be able to accomplish before NATO withdraws most of its troops at the end of 2014.

From the start, the Guantanamo transfer plan drew fire from politicians on Capitol Hill who, according to U.S. law, would have had to closely examine the proposal. The criticism came not just from leading Republicans, but also from some Democrats.

The Bergdahl family said it believes the opposition may have been too intense at a time when the administration is seeking to burnish Obama's national security credentials. "It doesn't seem like dialogue is even allowed" by Congress, Bergdahl said.

Mitt Romney, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, also has rejected the proposed transfer. "We do not negotiate with terrorists," he said in December.

'Too much risk'
The imprisonment of suspected militants at Guantanamo is an irritant in U.S. relations with Muslim nations including Afghanistan, which has long demanded the release of its citizens held since shortly after the U.S. invasion that toppled the Taliban government in Kabul in 2001.

Bob Bergdahl said he does not advocate an attempt to rescue his son by force. 

"That's too much risk, for too many people," said Bergdahl, who described Bowe as a "soft-spoken," "compassionate" young man who, as a home-schooled youth, was a skilled outdoorsman drawn to martial arts and biking.

A senior U.S. military official told The Associated Press that the Pentagon believes Bergdahl to be alive and in relatively good health. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because efforts to free Bergdahl remain sensitive.

A senior Obama administration official, also speaking on condition of anonymity because of concerns for Bergdahl's safety, told reporters that the case has been a topic at each of several direct meetings that U.S. officials have held with the Taliban. Direct contact, once taboo for the United States, began in secret last year in hopes that the channel could speed larger peace talks with the Afghan government of President Hamid Karzai and ultimately end the long Taliban insurgency.

The official said the U.S. hopes to revive the Bergdahl deal with the Taliban.

Marine Col. David Lapan, spokesman for Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters that the military has a "collaborative" relationship with Bergdahl's family, which is given quarterly updates from Washington. He said the family is not advised on whether to discuss the case with the news media.

"Our message to them is: We are working hard to obtain Sgt. Bergdahl's release, to bring him back into U.S. hands," Lapan said.

Asked about the family's complaint that the U.S. government has not done enough, Lapan said: "It's perfectly understandable that parents whose son has been kept in captivity for several years now are frustrated. We certainly understand that. That's why we do everything thing we can to try to keep them updated, to the extent we can."

He added: "If they are angry and/or frustrated, that is certainly understandable. I would say that our leaders are frustrated as well."

The last time the Bergdahls saw their son was the Christmas holiday of 2008, when he came home from his military service just months before shipping out to Afghanistan.

To solicit support for further action, Bob Bergdahl plans to speak at an annual demonstration to recognize prisoners of war over Memorial Day weekend in Washington. The event, organized by the nonprofit POW support group Rolling Thunder, typically attracts more than 100,000 motorcyclists to the nation's capital.

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Arshad Butt / AP

Pakistani security officials stand next to covered body of British Red Cross worker Khalil Rasjed Dale at the site in Quetta, Pakistan on Sunday.

QUETTA, Pakistan —The beheaded body of a kidnapped British doctor working for the International Committee of the Red Cross was found by the roadside on Sunday in the southwestern Pakistan city of Quetta, police and Red Cross officials said.

Khalil Rasjed Dale, 60, was abducted by suspected militants on Jan 5 while on his way home from work.

"The ICRC condemns in the strongest possible terms this barbaric act," ICRC Director-General Yves Daccord said in a statement. "All of us at the ICRC and at the British Red Cross share the grief and outrage of Khalil's family and friends."

British Foreign Secretary William Hague also condemned the killing.

"This was a senseless and cruel act, targeting someone whose role was to help the people of Pakistan, and causing immeasurable pain to those who knew Mr. Dale," Hague said in the statement.

A senior police officer said the Pakistan Taliban had claimed responsibility for the killing, saying a ransom had not been paid.

Police discovered Dale wrapped in plastic near a western bypass road. His name was written on the white plastic bag with black marker.

A sharp knife was used to sever his head from the body," said Safdar Hussain, the first doctor to examine the body. "He was killed about 12 hours ago."

Dale is only the third Westerner killed in such a fashion in Pakistan. The others include Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in 2002 and Piotr Stanczak, a Polish geologist, in 2009.

The Pakistan Taliban has been fighting a bloody insurgency against the Pakistani state since its formation in 2007. It is close to al Qaida and it claimed credit for a failed car bomb attempt in New York's Times Square in May 2010.

Quetta is the capital of southwestern Baluchistan, Pakistan's biggest but poorest province, where Baluch separatist militants are fighting a protracted insurgency for more autonomy and control over the area's natural resources.

Pro-Taliban militants are also active in the province, which shares borders with Afghanistan and Iran.

Dale had worked for the ICRC and the British Red Cross in Somalia, Afghanistan and Iraq before coming to Pakistan. He had been managing a health program for Baluchistan for almost a year when he was abducted, the ICRC statement said.

"We are devastated," Daccord said. "Khalil was a trusted and very experienced Red Cross staff member who significantly contributed to the humanitarian cause."

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Aref Karimi / AFP - Getty Images

Former Taliban fighters display their weapons as they join Afghan government forces during a ceremony in Herat province Thursday.

KABUL, Afghanistan -- It has not been a good month for the Taliban. Thursday night, the organization's El Emara website was hacked twice, causing much humiliation, with the hackers substituting propaganda with photographs of Taliban atrocities and pro-Afghan government and coalition slogans.

The hack was only one of a series of recent events suggesting the militant group has fallen on tough times or even reached a crisis point.

The Taliban blamed intelligence agencies that it said were worried about the strength of their messages.

"It [the group's website] was hacked again by enemies and foreign intelligence services," Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said. "The enemy tries to push its propaganda. The enemy is worried by what gets published in our webpage. It's confusing for them, so they try to react."

US offers 'safe passage' to Afghan Taliban leaders

The internet is important to the insurgents for more than just propaganda. They have appealed for donations on one of their websites, providing email addresses and telephone numbers and explaining to supporters how they can fund the ongoing campaign of violence in Afghanistan.

The alleged income from smuggling opium and donations from private sources in the Gulf no longer appears to be enough to finance the insurgency.

Internationally sponsored, poppy-eradication programs operating throughout the country seem to have had an effect, even if a recent survey by the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime showed that the success rate of such programs had decreased and predicted more farmers might soon return to the lucrative business.

Perceptions of Afghan Taliban victory dangerous: Pakistan general

Support for the organization is not constant. Some Taliban foot soldiers, particularly from the provinces, do not necessarily believe in the Taliban philosophy.

“The Taliban sometimes force male members of poor, helpless families in the villages to join and threaten them if they don’t,” Davood Moradian, political science professor at the American University in Kabul, told NBC News.

Johannes Eisele / AFP - Getty Images

An Afghan labourer works at a brick factory in the outskirts of Kabul Thursday. Poverty and the ongoing insurgency by the Taliban still pose a threat to the stability of the country.

Moradian said the Taliban take advantage particularly in provinces too remote for Afghan law enforcement to reach “so they end up being the rule of law in those places.”

High unemployment and poverty are significant reasons why young men join the Taliban, a study from the International Council on Security and Development conducted southern Afghanistan found. The beliefs and ideology of the Taliban, ICOS contends, are secondary or even unimportant to these recruits.

“In the villages, they had their crops destroyed, there is no water, no jobs, nothing to do – isn’t it fair that they go and join the Taliban? Wouldn’t you do the same thing?” a farmer quoted in the report said.

But sometimes poverty -- coupled with desperation and stupidity -- can work against the Taliban.

Last week, Mohammed Ahsan -- a “mid-level” Taliban commander as the U.S. military described him –- turned himself in and promptly demanded the $100 reward offered by his own wanted poster.

Predictably, the Taliban’s spokesman Zabiullah dismissed suggestions that their fighters were mercenaries or unwilling conscripts, and the idea that militant group was in financial trouble.

“This is not an expensive war for us, a lot of our soldiers fight for free, we don’t need to pay, they fight for their faith,” Zabiullah told NBC News.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- The United States and Afghanistan have agreed to "give safe passage" to representatives of the Afghan Taliban to help them to enter future peace talks, officials announced Friday.

It may  represent a significant step forward towards the resumption of peace talks that were suspended in Qatar last month, and  comes just weeks ahead of a NATO summit in Chicago on the future of Afghanistan. 

Speaking at a joint press conference with U.S. Special Envoy Marc Grossman and Pakistani Foreign Secretary Jalil Abbas Jilani,  Afghan Deputy Foreign Minister Javed Ludin said: "Time is short, peace is urgent."

New blow to US-Afghan links? Congressional delegation meets Karzai foes

"We need to find and encourage and create safe passage for peace talks," with the Afghan Taliban, he added.

His comments came after the three countries held their sixth meeting aimed at political reconciliation in Afghanistan.

A U.S. Embassy official confirmed to NBC News that the countries have agreed to allow and facilitate travel of the Afghan militants to participate in any future talks. The official said details of how it would work in practice have not been announced.

U.S. sees Taliban talks suspension as tactical move

Jilani announced the establishment of two new groups, one to represent the efforts of the three countries at the United Nations, and another responsible for "safe passage." "Safe passage will be to help bring Afghan Taliban in to peace talks," he told NBC News.

Slideshow: Afghanistan: Nation at a crossroads

Rahmat Gul / AP

More than ten years after the beginning of the war, Afghanistan faces external pressure to reform as well as ongoing internal conflicts.

Launch slideshow

Talks were suspended last month amid a string of public setbacks that have scandalized and angered Afghans, notably U.S. soldiers' burning of copies of the Koran and the killing of 16 Afghan villagers for which a U.S. soldier is in custody.

Dr Gareth Price, senior research fellow at Britain's Chatham House think thank, told msnbc.com the move could be seen as a "confidence-building measure".

"The US has made clear it will remain in Afghanistan in some form - that's the stick, if you like, so maybe this is the carrot," he said.

On Tuesday, White House sources told Reuters that President Barack Obama's administration may hand over a Taliban detainee at Guantanamo Bay prison directly to the Afghan government in order to help revive peace talks.

As foreign forces prepare to exit Afghanistan, the White House had hoped to lay the groundwork for peace talks by sending five Taliban prisoners, some seen as among the most threatening detainees at Guantanamo, to Qatar to rejoin other Taliban members opening a political office there. 

Sources: Scant evidence 'torture' aided war on terror, Senate probe finds

While that plan has not been scotched entirely, several sources familiar with preliminary discussions within the U.S. government said the United States may instead, as an initial gesture meant to revive diplomacy, send one of those detainees directly to Afghan government custody. 

The sources identified the detainee as a former Taliban regional governor named Khairullah Khairkhwa, who is seen by American officials as less dangerous than other senior Taliban detainees now held at the U.S. military prison in Cuba. 

Karzai slams NATO over 18-hour Kabul gunbattle

More than a year ago, the White House launched what began as a secretive diplomatic bid to coax the Taliban, the Islamist group that ruled Afghanistan until 2001, into peace talks. That campaign has become central to U.S. strategy as officials conclude the Afghan war will not end on the battlefield alone. 

It remains far from clear whether the Taliban would embrace sharing power in Afghanistan and whether the militants are cohesive enough to agree on a joint diplomatic approach. 

But Washington's strategy, before the summit in Chicago, is to build on what officials see as military progress against the Taliban, and encouraging signs from the Afghan and Pakistani governments, to heap pressure on the Islamist group. 

The Chicago summit is expected to further detail plans for the withdrawal of most of NATO's 130,000 troops there by the end of 2014 and set the course for future ties between Afghanistan and the West.

U.S. efforts to broker the talks were dealt a blow last month when the Taliban suspended its participation and appeared to reject even minimal restrictions for prisoner transfer. 

'Deplorable': U.S. defense chief condemns urinating Marines video

Meanwhile, President Obama has reviewed potential threats to the United States before next week's anniversary of the killing of Osama bin Laden, but there is no concrete evidence al-Qaida is plotting any revenge attacks, the White House said on Thursday. 

U.S. Navy SEALs shot bin Laden last year in a raid on the al-Qaida leader's compound in Pakistan before dawn on May 2 local time, which was May 1 in the United States. The killing is touted by the Obama administration as one of its top national security accomplishments. 

Osama bin Laden's widow, kids leave Pakistan

"At this time, we have no credible information that terrorist organizations, including al-Qaida, are plotting attacks in the United States to coincide with the anniversary of bin Laden's death," White House press secretary Jay Carney said on Thursday. 

Slideshow: After the raid: Inside bin Laden's compound

Farooq Naeem / AFP - Getty Images

U.S. forces found and killed the al-Qaida leader in the affluent Pakistani town of Abbottabad, where he had been living in a large compound.

Launch slideshow

That assessment was echoed in an FBI and Department of Homeland Security intelligence bulletin issued on Wednesday to state and local law enforcement agencies. 

The bulletin said U.S. agencies "have not detected signs of homeland plotting by these groups in the intervening months." 

Abbottabad: One year after bin Laden

Despite the lack of evidence of a threat, the bulletin cautioned that al-Qaida "probably would view a homeland attack on this anniversary as a symbolic victory that would help reassert the group's global relevance following the major leadership losses and operation setbacks it has suffered over the past year." 

Reuters contributed to this report.

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KABUL, Afghanistan -- The U.S. and Afghanistan on Sunday reached on a long-delayed "strategic partnership" agreement that ensures Americans will provide military and financial support for at least a decade beyond 2014, the deadline for most foreign forces to withdraw.

The pact is key to the U.S. exit strategy in Afghanistan because it provides guidelines for any American forces who remain after the withdrawal deadline and for financial help to the impoverished country and its security forces.

For the Afghan government, it is a way to show its people that their U.S. allies are not walking away and leaving it exposed to the Taliban and even neighboring governments.

"The Iranians don’t like it because it shows the U.S. is going to be here for a long time," a European diplomat in Kabul told the New York Times. "So that must be good. And neither will the Taliban; this is important because they cannot tell their soldiers now just to sit it out and wait for 2014."

After 10 years of U.S.-led war, insurgents linked to the Taliban- and al-Qaida remain a threat and as recently as a week ago, launched a large-scale attack on the capital Kabul and three other cities.

The draft agreement was worked out and initialed by Afghan National Security Adviser Rangin Dadfar Spanta and U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker. It must still be reviewed in both countries and signed afterward by the Afghan and American presidents.

"Our goal is an enduring partnership with Afghanistan that strengthens Afghan sovereignty, stability and prosperity and that contributes to our shared goal of defeating al-Qaida and its extremist affiliates," said U.S. Embassy spokesman Gavin Sundwall. "We believe this agreement supports that goal."

U.S. forces have already started pulling out of Afghanistan, and the majority of combat troops are scheduled to depart by the end of 2014. But the U.S. is expected to maintain a large presence in the country for years after, including special forces, military trainers and government-assistance programs.

The agreement is both an achievement and a relief for both sides, coming after months of turmoil that seemed to put the entire alliance in peril. It shows that the two governments are still committed to working together and capable of coming to some sort of understanding.

"The document finalized today provides a strong foundation for the security of Afghanistan, the region and the world and is a document for the development of the region," Spanta said in a statement issued by President Hamid Karzai's office.

Neither Afghan nor U.S. officials would comment on the details of the agreement. A Western official familiar with the negotiations said it outlines a strategic partnership for 10 years beyond 2014.

Reaching any agreement is likely to be seen as a success given more than a year and a half of negotiations during which the entire effort appeared in danger of falling apart multiple times.

Since the beginning of the year, U.S.-Afghan relations have been strained by an Internet video of American Marines urinating on the corpses of presumed Taliban fighters, by Quran burnings at a U.S. base that sparked days of deadly protests and by the alleged killing spree by a U.S. soldier in a southern Afghan village.

Tensions were further heightened by a spate of turncoat attacks by Afghan security forces on their international counterparts.

Obama to sign in next few weeks
White House National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor said President Barack Obama expects to sign the document before a NATO summit in Chicago next month, meeting the deadline set by the two sides. Many had started to worry in recent weeks that Karzai and Obama would miss that goal as talked dragged on and Karzai continued to announce new demands for the document.

The late May summit will see Western leaders try to agree on future funding and support for the 352,000-strong Afghan police and army. That support is expected to amount to $4 billion a year, with the Afghan government contributing around $500 million a year of that.

Much of the disagreement was about how to handle activities that the Afghan government saw as threatening its sovereignty, in particular, night raids and the detention of Afghan citizens by international forces. Those two major issues were resolved earlier this year in separate memorandums of understanding.

But closed-door talks continued for weeks after those side-deals were signed. And then as recently as last week, Karzai said that he wanted the agreement to include a dollar figure for funding for the Afghan security forces — a demand that would be hard for the Americans to sign off on given the need for congressional approval for funding. U.S. officials have said previously that they expected the document to address economic and development support for Afghanistan more generally.

The final document is likely to be short on specifics. U.S. officials involved in the negotiations have said previously that the strategic partnership will provide a framework for future relations, but that details of how U.S. forces operate in the country will come in a later agreement.

Karzai recently said he wanted the United States to contribute $2 billion a year under the U.S.-Afghan SPA, but an Afghan government source said on condition of anonymity that the deal negotiated by Crocker and Spanta contained no firm numbers.

The initialing ceremony means that the text of the document is now locked in. But the countries will have to go through their own internal review processes, Sundwall said.

"For the United States, that will mean interagency review, consultation with Congress as appropriate and final review by the president," Sundwall said.

In Afghanistan, the agreement will have to be approved by parliament. The Afghan foreign minister will brief Afghan lawmakers about the document Monday, the Afghan president's statement said.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

Updated at 8:15 a.m. ET: Afghan security forces on Saturday arrested five insurgents suspected of planning massive attacks on crowded areas of the capital Kabul, an intelligence spokesman said.

S. Sabawoon / EPA

Afghan security official stands guard at the checkpoint on a roadside in Kabul on Saturday.

National Directorate of Security (NDS) spokesman Shafiqullah Tahiri said the five men were seized on Kabul's outskirts with 10,000 kilograms of explosives (11 tons) stuffed in 400 bags and hidden beneath a cargo of potatoes in the back of a Pakistan-registered truck.

The group also planned to assassinate the country's second vice-president Abdul Karim Khalili, the BBC reported.

The BBC's Bilal Sarwary reported on Twitter that a video detailing the insurgents' plan had been found.

"It could have caused large-scale bloodshed," Tahiri told a news conference in Kabul.

"Three Pakistani terrorists and two of their Afghan collaborators who placed the explosives under bags of potatoes in a truck were caught."

Tahiri said the five men confessed to receiving training from Noor Afzal and Mohammad Omar, whom he identified as key commanders of the Pakistani Taliban and Pakistan intelligence.

Video footage released by NDS to media showed the detained men, including the alleged Pakistanis, talking about where they came from while sitting against a blank white wall.

Slideshow: Afghanistan: Nation at a crossroads

Rahmat Gul / AP

More than ten years after the beginning of the war, Afghanistan faces external pressure to reform as well as ongoing internal conflicts.

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A Pakistani intelligence official declined comment on the accusations, while Afghan officials were not immediately available to give additional information.

Coordinated assault
The alleged connection to militants in Pakistan will likely step up the pressure on Islamabad, after a recent assault by insurgents on diplomatic and government areas in Kabul and elsewhere put the spotlight on the South Asian nation. 

Afghan officials have long accused Pakistan of using insurgent groups like the Afghan Taliban as proxies in Afghanistan. 

Pakistan's government denies supporting or giving sanctuary to insurgents on its territory. 

Insurgents this week launched a coordinated assault on four provinces, targeting diplomatic and government areas of Kabul with rockets and gunfire in what they said was retaliation for abuses of Afghans by U.S. soldiers.

Kabul fighting ends after 18 hours of intense gunfire

The attacks showed the insurgency's resilience nearly 11 years since the Afghan Taliban were toppled.

The Afghan Taliban claimed responsibility for the attacks and said it planned similar assaults in coming months.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Slideshow: Afghanistan: Nation at a crossroads

Ahmad Jamshid / AP

More than ten years after the beginning of the war, Afghanistan faces external pressure to reform as well as ongoing internal conflicts.

Launch slideshow

About 150 Afghan schoolgirls were poisoned on Tuesday after drinking contaminated water at a high school in the country's north, officials said, blaming it on conservative radicals opposed to female education. 

Since the 2001 toppling of the Taliban, which banned education for women and girls, females have returned to schools, especially in Kabul.

But periodic attacks still occur against girls, teachers and their school buildings, usually in the more conservative south and east of the country, from where the Taliban insurgency draws most support. 

"We are 100 percent sure that the water they drunk inside their classes was poisoned. This is either the work of those who are against girls' education or irresponsible armed individuals," said Jan Mohammad Nabizada, a spokesman for education department in northern Takhar province. 

Some of the 150 girls, who suffered from headaches and vomiting, were in critical condition, while others were able to go home after treatment in hospital, the officials said.

They said they knew the water had been poisoned because a larger tank used to fill the affected water jugs was not contaminated. 

"This is not a natural illness. It's an intentional act to poison schoolgirls," said Haffizullah Safi, head of Takhar's public health department.

None of the officials blamed any particular group for the attack, fearing retribution from anyone named. 

The Afghan government said last year that the Taliban, which has been trying to adopt a more moderate face to advance exploratory peace talks, had dropped its opposition to female education. 

But the insurgency has never stated that explicitly and in the past acid has been thrown in the faces of women and girls by hardline Islamists while walking to school. 

Education for women was outlawed by the Taliban government from 1996-2001 as un-Islamic.

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Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Monday that the massive Taliban offensive in Kabul and three other provinces showed a "failure" by the intelligence services, and especially by NATO. 

In his first statement regarding the 18-hour siege of diplomatic and government enclaves, Karzai also said that Afghan security forces proved themselves capable of defending their country and providing security, Reuters reported. 

Thirty-six insurgents were killed during the brazen attacks that also claimed the lives of eight policemen and three civilians, Interior Minister Besmillah Mohammadi told The Associated Press.

Battles which broke out at midday on Sunday gripped the city's central districts through the night, with large explosions and gunfire lighting up alleys and streets. 

"The fact terrorists were able to enter Kabul and other provinces was an intelligence failure for us and especially for NATO," Karzai's office said in a statement, which also strongly condemned the attack. 

Black Hawks pound building
NBC News' Sohel Uddin reported that, after an intense assault at Afghanistan's parliament, the fighting ended at around 6:20 a.m. local time Monday (9:50 p.m. ET Sunday) with Afghan forces firing their weapons in the air in victory.

He said he had watched NATO Black Hawk helicopters and Afghan forces pound a building "in an effort to flush out the few remaining insurgents."

Fighting in Kabul ends after 18 hours of intense gunfire

Officials in Afghanistan and U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker said the attacks appeared to bear the hallmarks of the Haqqani network and a top Afghan security official said an attacker who was captured alive had confessed the attack was carried out by the militant group, Uddin reported.

The Haqqani network has ties to the Taliban and al-Qaida. 

Afghan and U.S. officials are trying to coax the Taliban — which is not as closely linked with al-Qaida as the Haqqanis — to negotiate a political resolution to the 10-year-old war.

Afghans march to protest violence against women

If the Haqqani faction of the insurgency is behind the recent attacks, it could be easier to sell the idea of making peace with the Taliban to skeptics who say it amounts to making a deal with the enemy. 

Slideshow: Afghanistan: Nation at a crossroads

Ahmad Jamshid / AP

More than ten years after the beginning of the war, Afghanistan faces external pressure to reform as well as ongoing internal conflicts.

Launch slideshow

Though the death toll was much lower than other attacks, the dramatic assault on multiple targets showed that militants are far from beaten and can still penetrate Afghan security — even in the heart of the capital — after 10 years of war.

The attack also underscored the security challenge facing government forces as U.S. and NATO troops draw down and prepare to leave by the end of 2014. 

Afghanistan gets veto power over NATO night raids

International forces have been working to build up the Afghan army and police — a goal threatened by a growing number of insider attacks this year. In the latest such attack, an Afghan soldier opened fire on Bulgarian troops at his base Monday. 

The soldier fired from a guard tower down on the Bulgarians at a joint base in Kandahar city, said Col. Mohammad Mohsin, a spokesman for the Afghan army in Kandahar. The Bulgarian troops fired back, killing the Afghan soldier, Mohsin said. He said the attacker was from northern Takhar province. 

NBC News' Sohel Uddin, Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Farooq Naeem / AFP - Getty Images

Swiss couple Olivier David Och and Daniela Widmer wave upon their arrival at the Qasim base in Rawalpindi on March 15, 2012. A Swiss couple held captive by the Pakistani Taliban for more than eight months were recovered safely, claiming they escaped their captors in the lawless tribal belt.

A Swiss couple kidnapped by the Pakistani Taliban last July has escaped and will return home soon, the Swiss foreign ministry said on Thursday after the two reached a military checkpoint near Pakistan's border with Afghanistan.

Olivier David Och, 31, and Daniela Widmer, 29, were kidnapped in Pakistan's southwestern province of Baluchistan and had been held by the Taliban in the North Waziristan region.

"A few minutes ago I was able to speak to Daniela and David, and yes, they are free. They are in a safe place," Swiss Foreign Minister Didier Burkhalter told a news conference. "Daniela and David said they managed to escape this morning."

He denied Switzerland had paid to secure the couple's freedom: "Switzerland does not pay ransoms, and Switzerland did not pay a ransom."

According to Swiss newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung (link in German), a Pakistani intelligence official who wished to remain anonymous said the Swiss government did in fact pay a ransom. He told the paper the Pakistani government had also released prisoners in the exchange, but it was not clear how many.

A spokesman for the Pakistan Taliban, Ihsanullah Ihsan, said the group released the couple after a council of elders was convened, CNN reported.

Swiss authorities declined to give the full names of the pair, who were named by Pakistani media.

Pakistan Army spokesman Major-General Athar Abbas told Reuters the pair had reported to a checkpoint and were then questioned in Peshawar. Abbas refused to refused to say whether a ransom was paid for the couple's release, or if other demands kidnappers were met, NZZ reported.

According to intelligence sources in North Waziristan, the two were found at a military checkpoint on a main road in Miranshah, the region's main town, at about 5:30 a.m. and were then sent to the city of Peshawar by helicopter.

The Swiss foreign ministry said in a statement the couple would return to Switzerland as soon as possible.

Targets
Pakistan's Taliban had claimed responsibility for kidnapping the couple, who were seized in the Loralai district of Baluchistan on July 1. The two were traveling in their Volkswagen bus from India to Iran.

The pair pleaded for their lives in two videos released in October. In one video, Och addressed the Pakistani, Swiss and American governments in English, asking them to release Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani neuroscientist imprisoned in the United States, and Taliban fighters in Pakistan's custody. The Taliban also demanded millions of dollars in ransom from the Swiss government.

Kidnapping for ransom is relatively common in Pakistan, and although foreigners are not often targets, militants occasionally take foreigners hostage.

Two Western aid workers were kidnapped by gunmen in the central Pakistani city of Multan on Jan. 19. A British doctor working with the International Committee of the Red Cross was kidnapped in the southwestern city of Quetta on Jan. 5.

Warren Weinstein, an American aid worker, was kidnapped in the central Pakistani city of Lahore in August last year. Al-Qaida claimed responsibility for Weinstein's abduction in December.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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