In side-by-side front page stories, under the single headline "New Afghan Strategies for the US and Its Foes," the New York Times March 27 tells us "Obama to Add Even More Soldiers to Fight Militants," while "Taliban's Two Branches Agree to Put Focus on an Offensive"—that is the Afghan and Pakistani wings of the movement. While not explicitly invoking the phrase "Af-Pak" now being widely used in military-intelligence circles, the stories make clear that strategists view the two countries as merging into a single theater of war.

At least 11 people were killed in a suicide bomb attack at a restaurant in northwest Pakistan March 26. About two dozen people opposed to Baitullah Mehsud, the Pakistani Taliban leader, were in the restaurant in the Jandola district of South Waziristan. Authorities said those killed were loyal to Turkistan Bittani, a pro-government tribal leader.

US-led coalition forces and Afghan troops killed five suspected members of a "terrorist network" in a raid in northern Afghanistan's Kunduz province March 22, the coalition said. But the mayor of Imam Sahib district, Abdul Manan, said it was his house that was raided and those killed were not militants.

Seven sharia courts opened this week in Pakistan's northwest Swat Valley as part of a peace agreement signed between tribal leaders and the government last month. Authorities said two qazis, or judges trained in Islamic law, reviewed some 30 minor cases in Mingora, the largest city in Swat.

Two Hellfire missiles fired by suspected US Predator drones reportedly killed four militants in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) March 15. Unnamed intelligence officials said two Pakistanis and two Arabs were killed in the strikes on a house in Sain Tanga village, near Jani Khel in Bannu Frontier Region, North Waziristan Agency. Sources said the house belonged to a local tribesman identified variously as Haji Awais or Taj Ali Khan. Al-Qaeda number-two man Ayman al-Zawahiri is also believed to be in the area. (NYT, DPA, AlJazeera, March 16)

Afghanistan's Supreme Court has upheld a 20-year prison term for Parwiz Kambakhsh, 24, a university student journalist accused of "blasphemy" for writing an article advocating greater rights for women under Islam. The student's family and lawyers said this week that they had learned only recently about the court decision, which was made in secret on Feb. 12.

Leaders of Pakistan's Mamoond tribe, which straddles the Afghan border in the country's Bajaur tribal district, signed an agreement with the government March 9 to end their insurgency, refuse shelter to foreign militants, and respect state authority. The pact commits the Mamoond to turn over key figures of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in Bajaur, lay down arms, disband militant groups and shut militant training camps.

A US drone was shot down by Taliban militants March 7 in Pakistan's South Waziristan tribal district, officials and residents said. The drone reportedly crashed in the Angoor Adda area, which has witnessed several missile strikes by pilotless aircraft as well as an apparent incursion last year by US-led coalition forces from Afghanistan. Pakistani officials are said to be searching for the wreckage. A drone was reported to have crashed near Angoor Adda in September. (PTI, March 7)