Pakistan: villagers resist Islamists

Shortly after the Pakistani Taliban won their demand for Islamic law in the Swat Valley, they seized control of the neighboring district of Buner—after overwhelming a village militia.

Afghanistan between two poles of terrorism

A NATO airstrike reportedly killed six civilians, including two children in Afghanistan’s Kunar province, while the Taliban executed a young couple for attempting to elope in Nimroz province.

Afghanistan: lawmaker and women’s rights advocate killed by Taliban

The Taliban have claimed responsibility for the April 12 killing of Sitara Achakzai, a women’s rights advocate in Afghanistan and a member of Kandahar’s provincial assembly.

Pakistan: thousands flee US drone attacks

US drone attacks on Pakistan’s northwestern borderlands are causing a massive humanitarian emergency, with up to 1 million displaced in recent weeks, officials in Islamabad claim.

Pakistan high court to probe flogging video

Pakistan’s newly re-instated chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry has called a hearing into the video showing the public flogging of a teenage girl in the northwestern Swat Valley.

Aghanistan: NATO militarizes humanitarian aid

Much of the international aid to Afghanistan over the past seven years has been spent to achieve military and political objectives, and the current approach to aid lacks “clarity, coherence and resolve,” a group of international NGOs said in a… Read moreAghanistan: NATO militarizes humanitarian aid

Pakistan flogging video to scuttle peace-for-sharia deal?

Authorities in Pakistan are calling the release of a video of a 17-year-old girl being brutally flogged in public a deliberate attempt to sabotage the peace deal signed with the Taliban.

US judge lets Afghanistan detainees’ habeas challenge proceed

A federal judge in Washington DC ruled that three detainees being held at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan can proceed with habeas corpus challenges to their detention.

Afghanistan: Karzai “legalizes rape”

Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzai, in political trading ahead of this year’s elections, has signed a Shia Family Law that women’s advocates at the UN say “legalizes” rape.

Neocons exploit Sufis on NYT op-ed page —again!

This time it is none other than neocon whiz kid and former undersecretary of defense Douglas J. Feith, along with Justin Polin, a sidekick from the Hudson Institute, who favorably invoke the Sufis in a New York Times op-ed about… Read moreNeocons exploit Sufis on NYT op-ed page —again!

Obama forges “Af-Pak” strategy as Taliban insurgency spreads

Barack Obama’s new Afghanistan strategy will dispatch 4,000 more troops to train Afghan security forces—as Afghan and Pakistani Taliban leaders have forged a cross-border alliance.