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)

From Amnesty International, June 10:

Millions of Pakistanis in the northwest tribal areas live in a human rights free zone where they have no legal protection by the government and are subject to abuses by the Taleban, Amnesty International said in a major report released on Thursday.

Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai has convened a jirga, or assembly of tribal leaders, to discuss a plan to reach out to the Taliban and broker peace June 2. Assailants with suicide vests, rockets and machine guns disrupted the opening ceremonies at the cavernous meeting tent on Kabul's Polytechnic University campus, sparking a 45-minute gun battle. The attachers apparently used women's burqas to sneak into the area. Two men were killed and a third was arrested. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack. (AP, McClatchy Newspapers, NPR, June 2)

A top UN official on June 2 called on the US to cease CIA drone strikes in Pakistan until more accountability for the strikes exists. UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions Philip Alston said that, despite their usefulness against terrorist organizations, the international community is kept uninformed of when and where drone attacks are authorized, allowing the CIA to conduct strikes virtually anywhere in the world without having to answer for its actions.

Mustafa Abu al-Yazid AKA Saeed al-Masri, operational leader for al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, was apparently killed in a US drone strike at the village of Boya near Miranshah, North Waziristan, in Pakistan's tribal areas. A Qaeda statement, viewed as accurate by US officials, says the death was within the last two weeks. Al-Yazid, an Egyptian, was a founder of al-Qaeda and considered by US intelligence to be the organization's No. 3 leader, behind Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri. Yazid is thought to have inherited the number three post after his predecessor, Abu Ubaidah al-Masri, died of hepatitis in Pakistan. "His death will only be a severe curse...upon the infidels," al-Qaeda supposedly said in a statement issued to jihadist websites and translated by the SITE Intelligence Group. (The Independent, June 1; NYT, May 31)

The US Senate May 27 approved a $60 billion supplemental spending bill to help support a "surge" in troops in Afghanistan. About half the funds will go to the Pentagon for the additional 30,000 troops. The package also includes $349 million in economic and security aid for Pakistan. The vote comes just as the number of US military casualties in Afghanistan surpassed 1,000. (RTTNews, VOA, Daily Times, Pakistan, May 28)