The Pakistani media have quoted Taliban and al-Qaeda sources denying responsibility for the deadly market attack in Peshawar, leading to a frenzy of conspiracy theories.
A strategically timed New York Times revelation of the CIA and narco ties of the Afghan president’s brother may be a ploy by elements in the US administration who have turned against Karzai.
The US embassy in Pakistan rejected claims that an Islamabad warehouse in the possession of a subcontractor to Blackwater/Xe was used to store heavy arms and ammunition for the company.
The US military is providing intelligence from Predator drones to assist the Pakistani army in its anti-Taliban offensive in South Waziristan, the Los Angeles Times reports.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced that the UK is sending 500 additional troops to Afghanistan—as the Taliban are rapidly seizing control in large areas of the countryside.
Streams of civilians jammed into cars and trucks to flee South Waziristan as Pakistan’s air force pounded the area with air-strikes ahead of an expected ground offensive against the Taliban.
Anti-war activists held a White House protest to oppose the escalation in Afghanistan—as Code Pink ponders the implications of a US withdrawal for women’s rights.
Four suspected militants were killed when a presumed US drone fired at two vehicles in Pakistan’s North Waziristan tribal area. It was the third suspected drone strike in 24 hours.
Tribal elders said that eight people—at least five of them civilians—were killed in a US airstrike on a village in southern Afghanistan’s Helmand province.
Human rights activists reacted to disclosures that the US government is planning to introduce measures to give inmates at Afghanistan’s notorious Bagram prison the chance to challenge their detention.
The Swedish Committee for Afghanistan accused US troops of storming through the charity’s hospital in Wardak province, breaking down doors and tying up staff.
A new report from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime warns of growing links between drug lords and the Taliban insurgency.
