A mosque and adjoining shrines were destroyed in an explosion at Ashkail village in the Khyber tribal region's Landi Kotal tehsil (district), near the Afghan border in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) on July 15. The Ishkhel mosque was 100 years old, and the adjacent shrines were older, some holding the remains of Sufi saints. There were no casualties, but hours later a bomb blast tore through a crowded market at Meharban Kaley in the Khyber Agency's Tiraah Valley, killing 10, including three children, and injuring 20. Five people were also killed and 55 others wounded that same day when a suicide blast ripped through a busy bus stand in Mingora Swat, North-West Frontier Province (NWFP), where local residents were celebrating an Aman Mela (Peace Festival) to promote reconciliation efforts.

Twin suicide attacks on the shrine of a Sufi saint in the Pakistani city of Lahore July 1 left 44 dead and 175 injured. The first blast went off at 11:20 PM in the basement of the tomb, an area reserved for ablutions; the second bomb exploded minutes later in the main prayer area which was crowded with worshipers who gather every Thursday for special rituals.

A US drone fired two missiles at a guesthouse next to a home in Khushali Torikhel village in Mir Ali sub-division of North Waziristan, killing four suspected militants, including foreigners, Pakistani sources said. According to a count by Iran's Press TV, the US has launched 36 drone strikes in Pakistan since January, killing at least 390. (Hindustan Times, Press TV, June 26)

At least nine ethnic Hazara men were killed in an ambush June 24 in a remote area of central Afghanistan that is largely controlled by the Taliban. The Hazaras had come to the district center of Khas Uruzguan, in a Pashtun area of Uruzgan province. Authorities did not confirm widespread reports that the men were beheaded, and there were conflicting reports on whether the Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack. The Taliban frequently execute those accused of spying for the government or coalition forces, but there may have been an ethnic-religious element to the attack; the Taliban carried out a campaign of genocide against the Shi'ite Hazaras during their years in power. (NYT, Central Asia Online, June 25)

Barack Obama's ouster of Gen. Stanley McChrystal as commander of US forces in Afghanistan—and his replacement by Gen. David Petraeus, who will step down as chief of Central Command—appears to represent a strategic shift within the administration. As a senator, Barack Obama opposed Petraeus' "surge" in Iraq, declared it would fail, and called for troop withdrawals. Now President Obama has turned to Petraeus to revive his own "surge" in Afghanistan.

A missile from a presumed US drone killed 13 people and wounded seven others when it struck a house in Haider Khel village in the Mir Ali area of Pakistan's North Waziristan. (AlJazeera, June 19) Meanwhile in Afghanistan's Herat province, a NATO drone crashed, with Taliban militants claiming to have shot it down in an Internet statement. NATO authorities deny it was shot down. The US-led forces appear to have increased drone operations in the region, and the US alone is said to have over 6,000 drones in Afghanistan. (Press TV, June 19)

The blogosphere is abuzz with today's front-page revelations in the New York Times of a vast bonanza of mineral wealth, estimated at some $1 trillion, recently "discovered" by the "United States" in Afghanistan, in the vague locution of the story's lead line. The "previously unknown deposits" supposedly include iron, copper, cobalt, gold—and lithium, expected to be one of the most critical substances of the 21st century. The story quotes an "internal Pentagon memo" (no agency, title or date given) that Afghanistan could become the "Saudi Arabia of lithium," the key raw material in the manufacture of batteries for laptops and BlackBerrys (and, it is envisioned, electric cars). Gen. David Petraeus is quoted crowing about the "stunning potential" of the find. But the article is light on the specifics of where this information is actually emanating from...

Some 40 were killed in a suicide attack on a wedding party in Nagahan village in Arghandab district of Afghanistan's Kandahar province, June 9. The groom and 17 of the guests were members of an anti-Taliban arbeki, or self-defense militia, organized by US Special Operations forces. Official say the aim of the attack was to be to undermine support for the group. (NYT, Bloomberg, June 10)