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.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai issued a decree allowing the country’s Supreme Court to go forward with a tribunal to hear complaints of fraud during the parliamentary elections.
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
A US soldier is currently being held in connection with the fatal shooting of a Taliban detainee, who was found dead in a holding cell in Kandahar province.
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.
The US Department of Justice announced that it has charged Pakistani Taliban leader Hakimulla Mehsud in connection with the deadly Dec. 30 attack on CIA outpost in Afghanistan.
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)
