Afghanistan: US bombs civilians —again?

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.

Afghanistan: new Bagram rules “step in wrong direction”?

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.

Afghanistan: US troops raid Swedish hospital?

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.

UN: Afghan drug lords a growing threat

A new report from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime warns of growing links between drug lords and the Taliban insurgency.

Taliban don’t read Koran, do they?

Like their counterparts in Pakistan, Afghanistan’s Taliban demonstrate once again that they aren’t above blowing up their cannon fodder at mosques—during Ramadan—to enforce their supposedly purist version of Islam. Now didn’t we hear somewhere, “Do not fight them at the Holy… Read moreTaliban don’t read Koran, do they?

Press freedom under attack in Afghanistan

Supposedly temporary restrictions on freedom of expression in the run-up to Afghanistan’s presidential vote are drawing protests from country’s press.

Pakistan: Taliban revolution devouring its children

A bomb blast killed at least seven in the Pakistani town of Charsadda. The Taliban claimed responsibility, saying the victims belonged to a tribe that had raised an anti-Taliban militia.

US shifts Afghan opium strategy

US Marines and Afghan forces destroyed hundreds of tons of opium and heroin in Helmand, in raids that officials say are part of a shift in counter-narcotics strategy.

Pakistan: sharia or “bloody revolution”?

Maulana Abdul Aziz warned that Pakistan faces a “bloody revolution” unless sharia law is announced nationwide. A bomb blast at the home of another cleric left at least nine dead.

US troops involved in Afghan shipping container massacre?

Rights observers in Afghanistan say US forces may have been directly involved in the mass slaying of up to 2,000 Taliban prisoners in 2001 who were sent across the desert in shipping containers.

Taliban score another heroic blow against Afghan children?

At least 25 were killed in Afghanistan’s Logar province after a truck loaded with explosives hidden under firewood was remotely detonated. Of the dead, only four were police; 16 were schoolchildren.

Afghanistan escalates with USMC offensive in Helmand

Some 4,000 US Marines moved into villages in Taliban strongholds in southern Afghanistan’s Helmand province—a remote area that is at the center of the country’s opium cultivation.