Afghanistan

Aid groups fear NATO Afghan withdrawal

Aid groups fear a power vacuum that will make their work in the country untenable after Afghan police and army troops replace foreign forces, a process slated to begin this summer and be complete in December 2014.

Afghanistan

Afghanistan: parliament approves pipeline plan

Afghan lawmakers approved the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline, which will pass through Herat and Kandahar. Reports referenced an unnamed “American firm” that will help build the line.

Afghanistan

Cannabis crop found at bin Laden’s compound

Rows of marijuana plants were found along with cabbages and potatoes on the border wall of the compound where Osama bin Laden was killed—while his Taliban allies stone people to death for smoking or growing.

Afghanistan

Was Osama bin Laden sheltered by Pakistan regime?

Osama bin Laden was apparently killed in a US Special Forces raid on a mansion in Abbottabad, a military garrison town just 100 kilometers outside Pakistan’s capital Islamabad, and supposed nerve-center of the counter-insurgency.

Afghanistan

Afghanistan: clash of fundamentalisms in round two of Koran wars

Wacky extremoid Christian fundi Terry Jones of Gainesville, Florida, apparently followed through on his threat to burn a Koran on March 20. This prompted wacky extremoid Muslim fundis in Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan, to storm a UN compound, killing as many as 20 employees and setting fire to several buildings.

Afghanistan

US soldier pleads guilty to murdering Afghan civilians

Specialist Jeremy Morlock pleaded guilty to three counts of murder as part of a plot contrived with fellow soldiers to kill Afghan civilians. Morlock also pleaded guilty to conspiracy, obstructing justice and illegal drug use.

Afghanistan

Protests across Pakistan as US drones kill 40

Thousands marched in angry protests in cities across Pakistan against a US drone attack that killed 41 people in North Waziristan. Pakistan also pulled out of upcoming talks with the US on the war in Afghanistan.

Afghanistan

Pakistan: Taliban expand suicide attacks

The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for two deadly suicide attacks in as many days—one targeting the funeral of the wife of an anti-Taliban militaman in Peshawar.

Afghanistan

Paranoia in Pakistan over gunman’s CIA ties

Was Raymond Davis, the CIA operative held by Pakistan in connection with a shooting incident last month, supplying nuclear and biological warfare materials to al-Qaeda?