Wanted al-Qaeda figure Abu Laith al-Libi was killed in Pakistan by a CIA air-strike, anonymous officials told CNN. Al-Libi was said to have been behind several attacks on US forces in Afghanistan, including the February 2007 bombing at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan during a visit by Vice President Dick Cheney. He was on a "most wanted" list of 12 accused terrorists issued in October by the Combined Joint Task Force-82. The officials said al-Libi was killed by a missile fired from an airplane. "May God have mercy on Sheikh Abu Laith al-Libi and accept him with his brothers, with the martyrs," said a eulogy posted on a leading Islamist site, Al-Ekhlaas.

Hundreds of Afghans chanted anti-US slogans in Ghazni Jan. 24 to protest the deaths of nine police, including a district commander, who local officials said were killed the previous day in an anti-Taliban operation by coalition troops. The coalition denied the claims, saying four insurgents were killed and nine were detained on the mission. Faced with troop shortages, US and NATO-led forces rely increasingly on air-strikes. (AP, Jan. 24)

Hundreds of Islamic militants armed with mortars and rocket-launchers overran a fort at Sararogha, in Pakistan's tribal borderlands Jan. 15, killing some 20 paramilitary troops of the South Waziristan Scouts and taking several more captive. The Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (Taliban Movement of Pakistan) issued a statement that it had carried out the attack. (NYT, Jan. 17) The following day, Canadian opposition leader Stephane Dion called for NATO "intervention" in Pakistan if President Pervez Musharraf's government failed to stop the cross-border flow of militants into Afghanistan. After a two-day visit to Afghanistan, Liberal Party leader Dion said: "We are going to have to discuss that very actively if they are not able to deal with it on their own. We could consider that option with the NATO forces in order to help Pakistan help us pacify Afghanistan." (Pakistan Daily Times, Jan. 18)

US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Jan. 16 he believes NATO forces currently deployed in southern Afghanistan "don't know how to do counterinsurgency operations." Most of the NATO troops in the south are British, Canadian and Dutch, while those in the north are US. Washington has just announced the temporary deployment of 3,200 Marines to southern Afghanistan to quell the rising number of attacks. (LAT, Jan. 16) The day before Gates' remarks, Trooper Richard Renaud, 26, of Quebec was killed by a roadside bomb in Kandahar's Zhari district, leaving behind a pregnant wife and a 4-year-old stepson. His death brings the Canadian death toll in Afghanistan to 78, including one diplomat. (Toronto Star, CanWest, Jan. 16) The UK has lost 86 troops in Afghanistan; the Netherlands have lost 14. Total coalition fatalities stand at 760, with 480 from the US. 2007 was by far the bloodiest year, with 232 fatalities. (Coalition Casualty Count, Jan. 16)

In a victory for Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda after weeks of bitter partisan struggle, Japan's Diet Jan. 11 approved legislation reauthorizing the naval refueling mission that the Self-Defense Forces launched in 2001 in support of US-led military operations in Afghanistan. Tokyo ordered its ships home after the original law expired in November and the opposition blocked an extension. The mission is to resume in February.

From the Asian Human Rights Commission, Jan. 2:

The two daughters of Ms. Asma Jehangir, a well known lawyer, human rights activist and the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to freedom of religion or belief, were assaulted and illegally held for several hours along with their friends by armed persons of the Pakistan Muslim League Q (PML-Q); they were beaten severely and threatened to be killed. One of the girls was pushed into a room and this was only prevented due to the intervention of their mother. Ms. Asma. Ms. Asma herself was also threatened by the gunmen who used very filthy language against her. When police were called to the scene they took the side of the gunmen who claimed to be police officers. However, only two out of this group were policemen and the 20 other gunmen belonged to the PML-Q.

Pakistan's biggest city of Karachi is completely shut down after rioters burned dozens of cars and set fire to stores in outrage at the killing of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto. All the city's petrol stations are sealed off and street lights were turned off. Protestors exchanged fire with the police in some parts of the city. Bhutto was killed along with at least 20 others in a suicide blast on an election rally in Rawalpindi. More than 60 were also injured in the attack. (Bloomberg, Dec. 27) At least five are reported dead in the Karachi violence. A passenger train was set on fire at Hyderabad, in Bhutto's stronghold of Sindh province. At Bhutto's home town of Larkana, Sindh, crowds set two banks on fire. In Multan some protesters fired shots into the air, and police fired teargas into crowds in Peshawar. When the hundreds of Bhutto supporters outside the hospital in Rawalpindi got word of her death, some smashed the glass door of the emergency unit, threw stones at cars and clashed with police, shouting: "Killer, killer, Musharraf!" (London Times)

Pakistan's security forces have been waging a "secret war" in the Baluchistan region since the death of tribal leader Mir Balaach Marri in combat last month. Peter Tatchell writes in The Guardian, Dec. 21: "The often indiscriminate attacks on civilian settlements are taking place mostly in the Kahan and Dera Bugti regions, and involve the deployment of heavy artillery, fighter aircraft and helicopter gunships. Pakistan's attacks have reportedly, so far, resulted in deaths of at least 100 men, women and children. More than 200 houses and other buildings, including schools and clinics, have been bombed and burned to the ground. Many farm animals were also killed in the attacks, depriving already poor people of their livelihood."