Saying the war against the Taliban is "still winnable," President Barack Obama ordered 17,000 more troops to Afghanistan to tackle an intensifying insurgency, the White House announced Feb. 17. This will bring US troop levels in Afghanistan to around 55,000. US troops in Afghanistan have already risen from around 30,000 at the beginning of this year to 38,000 now under orders signed by the Bush administration. The new forces will include a Marine expeditionary brigade of some 8,000 troops and an Army brigade of 4,000 soldiers equipped with Stryker armored vehicles, the Pentagon said.

Another US drone struck Pakistan's Tribal Areas Feb. 16, again killing some 30. Like the drone strike that killed similar numbers in South Waziristan Feb. 14, the raid targeted militants loyal to Baitullah Mehsud. But this time the missiles struck the Kurram tribal region—which had not been targeted before, signaling a broadening of the drone-strike campaign. The US has now targeted Pakistan four times since President Barack Obama took office last month.

As Russia marks the 20th anniversary of its withdrawal from Afghanistan, the BBC Feb. 14 spoke with veterans of the Soviet military campaign there, who had grim words of warning for Washington. "Doubling their forces won't lead to a solution on the ground," said Col Oleg Kulakov, who served twice in Afghanistan and is now a lecturer and historian in Moscow. "The conflict cannot be solved by military means, it's an illusion. No-one can reach any political goal in Afghanistan relying on military force. Frankly speaking, they are doomed to repeat our mistakes."

Two missiles fired from a US drone killed more than 30, reportedly including al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters, in Pakistan's Tribal Areas Feb. 14. The missiles struck three compounds, including one used by Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud and his fighters. Arab and Uzbek militants were apparently among those killed. The compounds were in the village of Shwangai, near the town of Makeen, South Waziristan. (NYT, Feb. 14)

Taliban suicide attacks struck government buildings at three sites in Kabul on Feb. 11, killing at least 20 people and wounding 57 in coordinated strikes that demonstrated the vulnerability of even Afghanistan's heavily fortified capital. At the Justice Ministry, five militants armed with explosives and Kalashnikov rifles killed two guards, stormed the building, and took control of several floors for about an hour. They shot to death 10 people before being killed.

Village elders in Mehtar Lam district of Afghanistan's Laghman province say that as many as 22 noncombatants were killed in a Jan. 25 US air-raid, in the fist controversy over civilian casualties since Barack Obama took office. US military officials insisting only 15 were killed, all Taliban fighters. An official statement said the strike targeted a Taliban commander "known to traffic foreign fighters and weapons into the region" after coalition ground troops came under fire in the village. Village elders said there were no Taliban in the area, wand said the hamlet was populated mainly by shepherds. They said women and children were among the 22 civilian dead, according to Hamididan Abdul Rahmzai, head of the provincial council. (LAT, Jan. 25)

Details are emerging on the victims in the Jan. 23 US air-strikes on Pakistan—the first since President Barack Obama took office. In the first strike on Zeraki village near Mir Ali in North Waziristan, three missiles hit a compound of tribal elder Khalil Khan Dawar, killing him and eight others on the spot. Khalil Dawar was reported to be associated with the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan militia of Baitullah Mehsud, and four Arab militants were said to be among the dead. But in the other attack, in the Gangikhel area of South Waziristan, two missiles hit the house of pro-government tribal elder Malik Deen Faraz, killing him, his three sons and a grandson.

Two missile attacks launched from a US drone killed at least 15 in Pakistan's northwest borderlands Jan. 23, indicating that the strategy of using remotely controlled air-strikes to target militants within Pakistan's borders will continue under President Barack Obama. Both of the missile strikes hit Waziristan, in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas.