The United Kingdom's Defense Ministry admitted this week that their pilots in Afghanistan are firing an increasing number of "enhanced blast" thermobaric weapons, designed to kill everyone in buildings they strike. Since the start of the year, more than 20 of the US-designed missiles, which have what is officially described as a "blast fragmentation warhead," have been fired by pilots of British Apache helicopters. A total of 20 were also fired last year.

The 24-hour curfew in Swat Valley, North West Frontier Province, which started on May 18, has led to severe shortages of food, water and medicines, creating a humanitarian crisis, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW). "People trapped in the Swat conflict zone face a humanitarian catastrophe unless the Pakistani military immediately lifts a curfew that has been in place continuously for the last week," Brad Adams, HRW's Asia director, said in a statement.

From The Independent, May 16, links added:

A single American Special Forces group was behind at least three of Afghanistan's worst civilian casualty incidents, The Independent has learnt, raising fundamental questions about their ongoing role in the conflict.

Apparent US missile strikes killed four militants in a Pakistani tribal area near the Afghan border May 16. AFP said the compound was located in Khaisur village, 30 kilometers east of Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan tribal region. AP put the attack in Mir Ali village. Security officials said they are digging through the rubble of destroyed houses for more victims. (AFP, AP, May 16)

Human Rights Watch (HRW) on May 13 called on the US government to make "fundamental changes to reduce civilian casualties" in Afghanistan after attacks last week reportedly left more than 140 civilians dead. HRW said that a review announced by chief of the US Central Command General David Petraeus must result in "measures that genuinely minimize civilian loss of life." HRW called on the US to heed international laws of war, under which attacks cannot be indiscriminate or cause disproportionate civilian loss.

Among the tens of thousands who have fled their homes in Swat Valley and the adjacent Buner district of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province (NWFP) are about 2,000 Sikhs who have taken refuge in a Sikh shrine in Hasanabdal, a town about 50 kilometers from Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad. According to Gulbeer Singh, head priest at the Sri Punja Sahib shrine, about 207 families from Buner District and 96 from Swat had taken refuge there. The number of Sikh internally displaced persons (IDPs), he said, is roughly 2,000.

The US announced May 11 the replacement of its commander in Afghanistan, Gen. David McKiernan, with Lt.-Gen. Stanley McChrystal, a former chief of Pentagon special operations forces. "Our mission there requires new thinking and new approaches from our military leaders," said Defense Secretary Robert Gates. (AlJazeera, May 11)

A US military contractor who pleaded guilty in February to voluntary manslaughter for the 2008 shooting of an Afghan detainee was sentenced in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia May 8 to five years probation and a $12,500 fine. Don Ayala had been charged with second-degree murder for shooting and killing detainee Abdul Salam in retaliation for Salam's earlier attack on Ayala's fellow contractor Paula Lloyd.