A new anti-Taliban offensive by the Pakistani military in the tribal region of Mohmand bordering Afghanistan has forced some 25,000 residents to flee, according to the UNHCR.
The Afghanistan Rights Monitor finds that 2010 was the deadliest year for civilians in the country since the US-led invasion of 2001, with more than 2,400 non-combatants killed.
More than 10,000 marched in the northwest Pakistan city of Peshawar to protest US drone attacks, one day after at least 13 were killed in three drone strikes in North Waziristan.
Vice President Joe Biden, reversing his recent position, said the US could stay in Afghanistan beyond 2014—as Hamid Karzai signed a long-term pact with NATO in Lisbon.
Veterans for Peace protested in front of the White House following the release of the administration’s rosy-scenario’d report on the war in Afghanistan.
Photo: War Resisters League
Pakistan’s foreign ministry strongly protested two NATO air-raids in North Waziristan over the weekend, in which some 30 fighters apparently belonging to the Haqqani network were killed.
The so-called “Burn a Koran Day” announced by a Gainesville preacher ignited protests for a second day in a row by hundreds of Afghans, who burned US flags and shouted “Death to America.”
Suicide bombers struck an Ahmadiyya mosque during Friday prayers in the western Pakistan town of Mardan—and a march by Shi’ites in solidarity with the Palestinians in Quetta.
Thousands of Shi’ites marched in mourning in Lahore a day after three suicide bombers blew themselves up amid a procession outside a mosque—the latest in a series of jihadist attacks on Muslims.
In its latest quarterly report to Congress, the US watchdog for Afghan reconstruction finds that the security situation is at an all-time low since monitoring began. Since the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) began tracking district control in 2015, Afghan government-controlled or "influenced" districts have declined 16% to 55.5%. In the same period, areas of insurgent control or influence rose 5.5% while "contested" districts increased 11%. As of late July, the US military assessed that the Kabul government controls or influences 226 of Afghanistan's 407 districts, while the Taliban controls/influences 49. The remaining 132 districts are identified as "contested." Since the prior quarterly report, Operation Resolute Support downgraded eight districts from "government influenced" to "contested." SIGAR said Afghan security forces "made minimal or no progress in pressuring the Taliban" in the period covered by the report. (Photo via Stars & Stripes)
At least six militants were killed in a presumed US drone strike in Miranshah, in Pakistan’s North Waziristan tribal region. The missiles hit minutes before the Ramadan fast was broken.
A couple were stoned to death for adultery in a Taliban-controlled village in northern Afghanistan, just as the Taliban is demanding a joint investigation with NATO and the UN into civilian casualties.
