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)
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.
A crowd of about 300 villagers blocked a main road in eastern Afghanistan and chanted “Death to the US!” The protest came after a raid by US forces in which they said three villagers were killed.
The Taliban should be prosecuted for war crimes, Amnesty International said, following the release of a UN report showing a rise in targeted killings of civilians by insurgents in Afghanistan.
Dozens of Afghan refugees have been reported missing and thousands displaced by severe floods in Pakistan over the past two weeks, according to refugees, aid workers and officials.
