A new report from a team of British and Pakistani journalists released by the UK-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism finds one US drone strike occurs every four days in Pakistan, and that the attacks have killed as many as 775 civilians, including 168 children, since 2004. The report also challenges a recent claim by President Obama’s top counterterrorism adviser, John Brennan, that no civilians have been killed in the drone attacks for nearly a year. According to the Bureau’s researchers, at least 45 civilians were killed in 10 drone attacks during the last year.

A woman and seven young children were killed in southern Afghanistan's Helmand province when a NATO patrol called in an airstrike against insurgents firing on them from a mud compound, local Afghan officials said Aug. 6. Habibullah Shamlani, the governor of Nad-Ali district, said the foot patrol came under fire from the compound the previous day. One soldier was killed, and an Afghan interpreter was wounded. The home belonged to Mullah Abdul Hadi, a local imam who Afghan officials say was assisting the Taliban. He was killed along with one of his two wives and his seven children, all younger than seven years old, Shamlani said. "People from the area said the imam was involved in making IEDs," or improvised explosive devices, Shamlani said. "We found three hand grenades in his house." NATO would not confirm whether any civilians were killed, but did say in a statement that "shortly following the engagement, coalition forces received reports that civilians were being held captive by the insurgents and may have been present during the airstrike." (NYT, Aug. 6)

A suicide bomber struck Kandahar's historic Red Mosque (Sarra Jamai) during a mourning ceremony for Afghan President Hamid Karzai's slain half-brother, regional strongman Ahmed Wali Karzai, on July 14. The explosives were hidden in the turban of an assailant disguised as an imam. Killed in the explosion was Maulavi Hekmatullah Hekmat, head of the provincial clerical council, and at least two others, including a young child. At least 15 were injured. The mosque was filled with tribal leaders and government officials. (Indian Express, The Australian, July 15; Global Post, WP, July 14)

Gen. David Petraeus, outgoing US commander in Afghanistan, and his soon-to-be successor Lt. Gen. John Allen met with top military leaders in Pakistan July 14 to try to resolve tensions that have escalated since the May 2 slaying of Osama bin Laden. The visit comes after the US put on hold some $800 million in aid and reimbursements to Pakistan's military in response to the cancellation of visas for US military advisors. Pakistan also publicly called a stop to US drone flights from Shamsi airbase near Quetta in Baluchistan province. However, drone strikes have continued, with some 42 killed in strikes July 11-2 in North and South Waziristan. The US is said to fly drones out of two other Pakistani air bases—one near Ghazi (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province) and another at Jacocobad (Sindh province) known as PAF Base Shahbaz. The CIA also flies drones into Pakistan's tribal areas from Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan. In an implicit acknowledgment that drone strikes will continue, White House counterterrorism chief John Brennan said in response to Islamabad's decision, "In some places such as the tribal regions between Afghanistan and Pakistan, we will deliver precise and overwhelming force against al-Qaeda." (AP, July 14; VOA, July 12; NYT, July 9; Wired, July 1; Defense Tech, Miami Herald, June 30; FT, June 29)

Ahmed Wali Karzai—half-brother of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, head of the Kandahar Provincial Council, and the province's de facto ruling warlord—was assassinated July 12 at one of his five mansions by a senior commander of his own security detail, Sardar Mohammad. The assassin—a member of Karzai’s extended clan, the Popalzai, and a trusted family associate for decades—was immediately gunned down by the other bodyguards. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack. The Interior Ministry says an investigation is underway and several people who were guarding the home have been taken into custody. Cables released by WikiLeaks last year revealed suspicions by US diplomats that Karzai was involved in Afghan's opium trade. After one meeting with US envoy Frank Ruggiero in September 2009, the diplomat said of Karzai, known by the acronym "AWK": "While we must deal with AWK as the head of the provincial council, he is widely understood to be corrupt and a narcotics trafficker." (AFP, ABC, MSNBC World Blog, July 12)

President Barack Obama said June 28 that his newly announced drawdown of US military forces in Afghanistan will be done "in a responsible way." Under the plan, 10,000 troops will be pulled out of the country by year's end, and a total of 33,000 troops will be out by next summer, fully returning the "surge" troops the president announced in late 2009. (Xinhua, May 30) Simultaneously, coalition and Afghan officials will be tripling the size of a US-funded program to establish local self-defense militias to fight against insurgents. The militia forces—said to be modeled after the Sons of Iraq, led by Sunni ex-insurgents who turned against al-Qaeda—are to grow from a current 6,500 recruits to 30,000. "Where we have them trained and fully employed the Taliban is not re-emerging," boasted Army Brig. Gen. Jefforey Smith, an assistant commanding general at the Combined Security Transition Command-Afghanistan. (USA Today, June 29)

Defense Secretary Robert Gates acknowledged on June 19 that the US had opened preliminary talks with members of the Taliban as part of an effort to end the war in Afghanistan. In an appearance on CNN’s "State of the Union," Gates cautioned that the talks were in preliminary stages and officials remain uncertain the Taliban participants are authentic representatives of leader Mullah Omar. He said the effort was being carried out by diplomats but did not directly involve the secretary of state, Hillary Clinton. And he said several other countries are participating, though he did not name which ones. "We have said all along that a political outcome is the way most of the wars end," Gates said. "The question is when and if they are ready to talk seriously." (NYT, June 19)

At least 20 people, eight of them army troops, were killed when Taliban militants attacked a security post at Wakeen in Pakistan's South Waziristan tribal region on June 9. The attack came five days after Mohammad Ilyas Kashmiri, commander of Harkat-ul Jihad al Islami (HUJI), was killed in an apparent US drone strike near Wana, South Waziristan. He was believed to be the mastermind of an audacious May 23 militant attack on Pakistan's Mehran naval base in Karachi, which was repulsed after an indeterminate loss of life. (RTT, June 9; Dawn, June 4; Dawn, May 23)