The UK’s Defense Ministry admitted that their pilots in Afghanistan are firing an increasing number of “enhanced blast” thermobaric weapons, designed to kill everyone in buildings they strike.
The 24-hour curfew in Pakistan’s embattled Swat Valley has led to severe shortages of food, water and medicines, creating a humanitarian crisis, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW).
A single US Marine Special Forces group created by Donald Rumsfeld three years ago was behind at least three of Afghanistan’s worst civilian casualty incidents, The Independent reports.
Apparent US missile strikes killed four militants in a Pakistani tribal area near the Afghan border. Islamabad has repeatedly protested the drone attacks as an affront to Pakistan’s sovereignty.
Human Rights Watch called on the US government to make “fundamental changes to reduce civilian casualties” in Afghanistan after attacks last week reportedly left more than 140 dead.
Among the tens of thousands who have fled fighting in Pakistan’s Swat Valley and the adjacent Buner district are about 2,000 Sikhs who have taken refuge in a Sikh shrine in Hasanabdal.
The US announced the replacement of its commander in Afghanistan, Gen. David McKiernan, as rights groups demand a probe of white phosphorus use against civilians by US and NATO forces.
A US military contractor who pleaded guilty to the 2008 shooting of an Afghan detainee was sentenced to five years probation and a $12,500 fine.
Gen. David McKiernan, US commander in Afghanistan, told a press briefing that the mission there is likely to fail if militants continue to gain power in Pakistan.
Pakistani security forces backed by warplanes and helicopters launched a new operation in Buner district near the Swat Valley, bombing suspected Taliban targets. The Pentagon applauded the move.
The co-educational schools that the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) runs for Afghan refugees in Pakistan are under attack from Pakistan’s new Taliban movement.
