With Afghan opium cultivation up 64% in 2004 over the previous year, far exceeding even the gravest predictions, the Pentagon is broadening the scope of the U.S. mission in Afghanistan to allow direct involvement in drug enforcement. Writes the NY… Read moreU.S. into Afghan opium war
In a gunbattle in a village near the Pakistan border in Afghanistan’s Paktika province, US troops apparently killed Raz Mohammed, described by a US commander as a "high-level Taliban." "Coalition troops were fired on by Raz Mohammed and other Taliban… Read moreU.S. forces kill Taliban bigwig—and, oh yeah, woman, children
Up to 50 worshippers are dead and twice as many wounded in a bomb blast at a shrine to the 19th century Sufi saint Pir Rakhel Shah at Gandhawa in Pakistan’s conflicted province of Baluchistan March 19. The bomb went… Read moreTerror in Baluchistan
Condoleezza Rice’s March 18 visit to Afghanistan ironically coincided with evident setbacks for the country’s nascent democracy. President Hamid Karzai announced that parliamentary elections scheduled for May have been pushed back until September due to ongoing logistical chaos. The day… Read moreKarzai postpones Afghan elections
Two US soldiers have now been charged in the deaths of two Afghan prisoners who died in US custody in December 2002, after they were apparently chained to the ceiling before being savagely beaten at the Bagram Control Point, just… Read moreMore charges in Afghan torture case
David Passaro, a CIA contract interrogator, is on trial in Raleigh, NC, for beating an Afghan prisoner who died the next day. The case has revealed several horror stories from the prison just north of Kabul—an abandoned warehouse code-named the… Read moreCIA man in Afghan abuse case to cite Bush
At least 22, including both rebels and government troops, are dead in fresh fighting with presumed Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan. The bloodiest clash was in Helmand province, where troops were ambushed on night patrol. "Our mujahideen killed the soldiers in… Read moreRenewed violence in Afghanistan
The BBC reported a glimmer of hope Jan. 27 from Pakistan’s Northwest Frontier Province, where Taliban-inspired movements have won local political control over the semi-autonomous Tribal Areas. Two local kids, Tariq Hussain Bacha and Zeeshan Khan (respectively 12 and 11), have… Read moreYoung music stars defy mullahs in Pakistan’s Tribal Areas
Guerillas of the Baluchistan Liberation Army threatened to blow up Pakistan’s most important oil and gas facility at Dhodak, in the central province of Punjab. The statement, phoned into several newspapers Feb. 6 by a spokesman called Azad Baluch (an… Read moreBaluchi rebels threaten Pakistan oilfields
The largely invisible suffering of Afghanistan’s internal refugees made a rare appearance in the US media Feb. 4 with a NY Times story and front-page (below-the-fold) photo. The article noted that eighteen people have died in the refugee camps outside… Read moreAfghan refugees: still in plight
Ishaq Levin, one of the last two Jews in Kabul (and presumably in all of Afghanistan), was buried at Jerusalem’s honored Mount of Olives Feb. 2. When Taliban rule ended three years ago, Levin and Zebulon Simentov were found living… Read moreAfghan Jews: down to one
The separatist insurgency that has been shaking Paksitan’s Baluchistan province–strategically bordering Afghanistan–since the beginning of the year seemed to have come out of nowhere. Finally, a Jan. 29 account in the BBC sheds some light. It seems the natural gas… Read moreGas operations at root of Baluch insurgency
