While 11 candidates (out of some 3,000) were barred from Afghanistan’s parliamentary elections for ties to warlordism, many veteran Mujahedeen commanders with pasts tained by human rights abuses—or even ethnic cleansing—seem to have slipped through the cracks. Reported Newsday Sept…. Read moreWarlords to maintain power in Afghan elections?
The polling stations closed last night in what was hailed as Afghanistan’s first free parliamentary elections since 1969. Overseeing the security of the elections in the capital was the special Kabul Multi-National Brigade (KMNB VIII), composed of units from 24… Read moreAfghan elections marred by violence, disenfranchisement of women
A military jury at Fort Bliss, TX, spared an Army reservist prison time but reduced his rank Aug. 18 for abuse of a detainee who later died at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. Prosecutors had asked that Pfc. Willie V…. Read moreNo prison for soldier in Bagram abuse case
The campaign officially opened for Afghanistan’s first post-Taliban parliamentary race Aug. 17, even as violence continues to plague the country. Authorities are still not ruling out the possibility of an attack against a helicopter that crashed near Herat Aug. 17,… Read moreAfghanistan: election campaign opens amid violence, warlordism
A Taliban spokesman called Hakimi said guerillas destroyed a US military vehicle Aug. 9 in Ghazni Province. “The Americans suffered loss of life in the attack,” Hakimi said. US military sources acknowledged that a vehicle was destroyed by an improvised… Read moreAfghanistan: woman candidates threatened
Bad news for Nuristan, the remote and isolated region of Afghanistan’s central mountains, known until just over a century ago as Kafiristan (land of the infidels) because of the survival of the ancient Indo-European nature religion there. The region straddles… Read moreOsama bin Laden in Kafiristan?
Claims of civilians wiped out in US air raids, journalists detained by security forces, GIs missing in combat. My, things just look better and better in Afghanistan. Thanks to Lebanon’s Daily Star for this report which, while compiled from wire… Read moreUS kills more civilians in Afghanistan: provincial governor
US helicopters and hundreds of troops are searching for soldiers who went missing in Afghanistan just before a helicopter coming to their aid was shot down in Kunar province June 28, killing the 16 on board, all Navy Seals and… Read moreChinook down in Afghanistan; historians have deja vu
A suicide bomber crashed his car into a US military patrol just outside Kandahar June 13, killing himself and wounding four US soldiers, one seriously. The US ambassador in Kabul, Zalmay Khalilzad, condemned such attacks as “cowardly acts of desperation,… Read moreUS troops under attack in Afghanistan
Just four days after the last one, another mosque was hit by a suicide bomber in Pakistan last night. This time the blast, at a Shi’ite mosque in Karachi, killed five and wounded 18. It also sparked a night of… Read morePakistan: still more sectarian terror
Violence against women and girls in Afghanistan is pervasive, says Amnesty International today, releasing its latest report “Afghanistan: Women Under Attack.” “Throughout the country, few women are exempt from violence or safe from the threat of it,” the report finds…. Read moreAfghanistan: women still under attack
At least 25 are dead in an apparent suicide bombing at the Bari Imam Sufi shrine at Nurpur village outside Pakistan’s capital Islamabad this morning. Thousands of devotees were attending the last day of a five-day festival at the time… Read morePakistan: more sectarian terror
