The number of civilian casualties in Afghanistan rose dramatically last year according to the latest annual survey by the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA).
Afghan officials signed an agreement to take over the US military’s controversial Parwan Detention Center that was formerly housed at Bagram Air Base.
Four were killed in a US drone strike in North Waziristan—hours after Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani again voiced official objection to the ongoing US strikes on Pakistan’s territory.
US authorities announced charges against two former employees of security firm Blackwater in connection with the May 5 shooting death of two Afghans in Kabul.
War killed hundreds of children and adversely affected many others in 2009—the deadliest year for Afghan children since 2001—says a new report by the Afghanistan Rights Monitor.
Taliban leaders confirmed that long-planned direct talks with the US took place in Doha, capital of Qatar. The Taliban said in a statement that their delegation met with US special adviser for Afghanistan reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad. The statement said the two sides discussed the prospects for an end to the presence of the foreign forces in Afghanistan, and the return of "true peace" to the country. These overtures come as the US is stepping up operations against ISIS in Afghanistan. In an August air-strike in Nangarhar province, the US claimed to have killed Abu Sayed Orakzai, top ISIS commander in Afghanistan. Earlier in August, more than 200 ISIS fighters and their two top commanders surrendered to Afghan government forces in Jowzjan province to avoid capture by Taliban insurgents, after a two-day battle that was a decisive victory for the Taliban. (Photo: Khaama Press)
Afghan President Hamid Karzai appointed a delegation to investigate 10 civilian deaths, including eight schoolchildren, believed to have occurred during a NATO raid in Kunar province.
A suicide bomb in Muzaffarabad, in Pakistan-administrated Kashmir, killed at least 15 and injured over 100 in an attack on a Shi’ite religious procession marking the Ashura holy period.
A House committee has launched an investigation into claims that US military contractors in Afghanistan are paying the Taliban to guarantee the safety of their transportation convoys.
Pakistan’s Supreme Court struck down the National Reconciliation Ordinance that granted President Asif Ali Zardari and 8,000 other government officials immunity from corruption charges.
Citing the “biohazard” created by blood-stained money, a judge sentenced Ellen Barfield of War Resisters League to 25 days in jail for a protest at a Senate hearing on Afghanistan.
Hundreds of women, many carrying pictures of relatives killed by drug lords or Taliban militants, marched in Kabul, demanding that President Karzai purge his government of war criminals.
