Afghanistan Theater

Pakistan: Taliban expand suicide attacks

The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing that killed at least 34 people in the country's northwest March 9. The bomber detonated his explosives at a funeral procession for the wife of an anti-Taliban militiamen near Peshawar. Militia leaders charged the government with betrayal."We are ending all co-operation with the government. We will not forgive the Taliban for the death of our people, but we will avenge these deaths in our own way now," Dilawar Khan, leader of the Qaumi Amn Lashkar militia told the BBC. "We've fought against the Taliban. We've done what the government had to do but in exchange the government we didn't even receive security for a funeral." (AKI, RFE/RL, March 9) On March 8, militants targeted a gas station in Faisalabad, Punjab province, with a car bomb that killed some 25 people. The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility. (RFE/RL, March 9)

Afghanistan: Taliban open suicide offensive, talk to US?

At least 24 people were wounded when a suicide bomber detonated his explosives in a busy market in Spin Boldak, a town in Afghanistan's southern province of Kandahar, Feb. 24. The attack is the latest in a string of suicide blasts to hit Afghanistan. More than 100 people have died in such attacks in the last three weeks. (RFE/RL, Feb. 24) The offensive comes as Steve Coll in the New Yorker of Feb. 28 asserts that the US has entered into exploratory talks with the Taliban. But the Taliban has reportedly set NATO withdrawal as a prerequisite for negotiations, and the US demands a breaking of ties with al-Qaeda. (The News, Pakistan, Feb. 23)

Paranoia in Pakistan over gunman's CIA ties

The opposition in Pakistan is expressing outrage over revelations that a US citizen held by the authorities in connection with a shooting incident last month is a security contractor for the CIA. Raymond Davis was taken into custody following the shooting deaths Jan. 27 of two Pakistanis in Lahore. Davis claimed he acted in self-defense during an armed robbery attempt. The US government said Davis was an embassy employee, and should be immediately released on the grounds of diplomatic immunity. Now Washington officials have confirmed reports in the New York Times that Davis was part of a CIA operation tracking the Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group. He is also said to have worked for security firm Xe/Blackwater.

Baluchistan blasts target pipeline, NATO

Militants in Pakistan's Baluchistan province attacked a NATO supply truck transporting fuel to US-led forces in Afghanistan, setting it on fire Feb. 11. One day earlier, presumed Baluch militants blew up the gas pipeline that runs through the province for a second time this week, again leaving tens of thousands of consumers without gas. (Press TV, Feb. 11; AFP, Feb. 10)

Pakistan: thousands flee new offensive

A new anti-Taliban offensive by the Pakistani military in the tribal region of Mohmand bordering Afghanistan has forced some 25,000 residents to flee, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). The military claims that its troops have so far killed more than 70 Taliban militants in what it described as a "search and clearance operation." (RTTNews, AlJazeera, Feb. 4)

2010 deadliest year for Afghan civilians

The Afghanistan Rights Monitor (ARM) said Feb. 2 that 2010 was the deadliest year for civilians in the country since the US-led invasion of 2001, with more than 2,400 non-combatants killed. Taliban and other insurgents were responsible for more than 60% of the dead, according to the report. "Almost everything related to the war surged in 2010," said the report, noting that the number of Afghan government and foreign forces surged to some 350,000, as the number of "security incidents" rose to more than 100 per week. Between January and December 2010, "at least 2,421 civilian Afghans were killed and over 3,270 were injured in conflict-related security incidents across Afghanistan," the report finds. By comparison, there were 2,332 civilian deaths as a result of the war in 2009.

Pakistan: thousands march against US drone strikes

More than 10,000 marched in the northwest Pakistan city of Peshawar Jan. 23 to protest US drone attacks, a day after at least 13 were killed in three drone strikes in North Waziristan region. Activists from the country's largest Islamist party, Jamaat-i-Islami, blocked a main road and staged a six-hour vigil outside the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provincial parliament.

US to stay in Afghanistan beyond 2014: Biden

US troops will stay in Afghanistan beyond 2014, with Kabul's permission, Vice President Joe Biden said last week. While insisting the US does not intend "to govern or nation-build" as that "is the responsibility of the Afghan people and they are fully capable of it," Biden added: "We stand ready to help you in that effort ... after 2014." Biden's comments come a month after he told NBC's "Meet the Press" that the US would be "totally out" of Afghanistan by 2014 "come hell or high water."

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