The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled May 21 in al-Maqaleh v. Gates that detainees held at Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan cannot bring habeas corpus challenges in US courts. The circuit court reversed the district court's ruling, which allowed habeas challenges by three Bagram detainees pursuant to the Supreme Court's test in Boumediene v. Bush. Chief Judge David B. Sentelle, delivering the opinion of the three-judge panel, stated that the district court underestimated the significance of Bagram being located in an area of armed conflict, which differentiates the defendants' jurisdictional status from those detained at Guantánamo Bay. The court held that the current case is more comparable to 1950's Johnson v. Eisentrager, where the Supreme Court ruled that US courts had no jurisdiction over war criminals held in a US-administered German prison.

A May 20 US Forces-Afghanistan press release states that military officials have launched a criminal investigation into allegations that a "small number of US soldiers were responsible for the unlawful deaths of as many as three Afghan civilians." The investigations also include allegations of illegal drug use, assault and conspiracy. No charges have been brought yet, but one soldier has been placed in pre-trial confinement.

A "mysterious" fungus that has damaged opium poppy crops in Afghanistan is sparking fears of US biological warfare. Helmand farmers interviewed by BBC Pashto service were convinced that "they" had deliberately destroyed the crops—the pronoun "they" being a euphemism for US secret agents, believed by the farmers to have sprayed the crops with the fungus. The UN drug control office in Afghanistan is conducting an investigation into the outbreak.

A proposed strategy document dubbed "NATO 2020," released at the alliance's summit in Brussels May 17, calls for an expanded readiness and capacity to operate beyond the borders of member states, and names the campaign in Afghanistan as a top priority. "NATO must be versatile and efficient enough to operate far from home," said former Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright, who led a team of experts in writing the report. Already this year, 200 NATO soldiers have died in Afghanistan, compared with 119 in the same period last year. (NYT, May 17)

US drones killed 21 presumed Taliban militants in two separate strikes in Pakistan's tribal region of North Waziristan on May 11. In the first strike, a drone fired 10 missiles at a vehicle and tents in Doga Maza Khel area of Datta Khel tehsil (administrative division), 50 kilometers west of Miranshah, killing 14. In the second attack, in Gurwak area of Shawaal tehsil, 70 kilometers from Miranshah, the drone fired two missiles at a vehicle and a house, killing seven. Ten drones were seen hovering over the area. (Daily Times, Pakistan, May 11)

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has confirmed the existence of a secret US detention facility at Afghanistan's Bagram Air Base, according to a May 11 BBC News report. Last month, BBC News reported that nine Afghan witnesses claimed that they were held and tortured in a secret US prison at Bagram. The witnesses say that they were captured by US forces and taken to a secret location where they were abused and interrogated, then later transported to an official detention facility in Parwan, a new prison recently opened at the edge of Bagram Air Base. Torture allegations include sleep deprivation, disorientation, beating, and humiliation tactics. The US continues to deny the existence of secret prisons in Afghanistan.

Dozens of schoolgirls in Afghanistan were hospitalized May 11 after two apparent poisonous gas attacks on schools, officials said, the latest in a spate of similar incidents. Thirty schoolgirls in the northern city of Kunduz and six in Kabul are hospitalized, with health officials reporting more coming in. One of the girls taken ill in Kunduz said she saw a man in black clothes and face mask throw a bottle near the school, which released a foul-smelling fume. Three suspected poison gas attacks on girls' schools have taken place in Kunduz over the past few weeks; last week 22 schoolgirls and three teachers fell ill when their school was struck. The Taliban have denied responsibility. (Reuters, May 11)

The US detention center at Bagram in Afghanistan could be expanded into a military prison for terrorist suspects detained around the world under one option being considered as White House officials try to find an alternative to Guantánamo Bay, the London Times reports March 22. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the US commander in Afghanistan, has voiced his opposition, because of the negative publicity it would generate.