After initially denying reports of his death, Taliban spokesmen have now confirmed that Mullah Dadullah, their most public and prominent leader, has been killed in clashes with Afghan and Nato forces in the southern province of Helmand. [Al Jazeera, May 13] Mullah Dadullah, the Taliban's military commander, had a bloody reputation earned through numerous alleged atrocities, including most famously the massacre of Hazaras – a Shia minority group – in the province of Bamiyan eight years ago. [The Telegraph, May 15]

An air raid killed 21 civilians in Afghanistan's southern province of Helmand May 8, the provincial governor charged. "Twenty-one civilians, including women and children, were killed" in the raid on a village in Sangin district, Gov. Assadullah Wafa said. AlJazeera TV said it was not clear whether the raid was by NATO's International Security Assistance Force or the separate US-led coalition. NATO denied knowledge of the raid.

Tehran has expelled tens of thousands of Afghans from Iran since mid-April, with authorities saying they will repatriate 1 million unregistered Afghan refugees over the next years. The UNHCR says it is powerless to intervene as those being forcibly repatriated are not legally registered refugees. But several repatriated Afghans told RFE/RL that Iranian authorities had confiscated and destroyed their registration cards before expelling them from the country. But Afghans affected by the campaign claim that even legally registered refugees are being forced to leave. They say those who remain in Iran face pressure that makes it difficult for them to survive. Kabul's Foreign Minister Rangin Dadfar Spanta said Iran should immediately stop repatriating large numbers of Afghans because Afghanistan does not have sufficient resources to help them resettle. (RFE/RL, May 3)

Afghanistan's parliament is poised to pass a new media law considerably reducing freedom of the press. The controversial package—proposed by the religious and cultural affairs commission of the parliament, chaired by former warlord Haji Mohammed Mohaqeq and supported by the government—will bring both private and state media under greater government control. Proposed changes include an oversight committee to will scrutinize the press for "un-Islamic" content. Complaints concerning media content will be referred directly to the supreme court, a conservative bastion.

The recent military campaign by tribesmen in Pakistan's northwest borderlands to drive out Uzbek Islamist militants, portrayed as a victory against extremism by Islamabad, may have more to do with mere animosity between Pashtuns and Uzbeks than a rejection of al-Qaeda's ideology. Mullah Nazir, the tribal commander who led the weeks-long battle against the Uzbeks in South Waziristan, is now refered to in Pakistan's media as a "Taliban leader"—and says he would protect Osama bin Laden if the al-Qaeda leader sought shelter in his territory.

Afghan troops tore down part of a new "anti-Taliban" fence being erected by Pakistan on the border between the two countries April 19, leading to an armed clash with Pakistani forces. An Afghan defense ministry statement said the fighting took place between the Afghan border town of Shkin and Angoor Adda in Pakistan's Tribal Areas. "Today at 9:30 AM the Afghan army moved to the area and removed the fence," the defence ministry statement said. "Pakistani troops fired on our forces, and the Afghan army returned fire." Islamabad said the clash started when Afghan troops fired on a Pakistani border patrol. Pakistani military spokesman Gen. Waheed Arshad, told the BBC that the clashes were unconnected with the fence, which in any case was deep inside Pakistani territory. No casualties have been reported by either side.

A slight irony. On April 7, the New York Times runs an optimistic op-ed by Munir Akram, Pakistan’s ambassador to the UN, entitled "A United Front Against the Taliban." He assures readers that tribal leaders along the Afghan border are being turned against the Taliban, and that the Afghan refugee camps where the Taliban recruit are about to be cleared out (which the Afghan refgees themselves might not consider such good news). He writes that the largest camps—Pir Alizai and Gidri Jungle in Baluchistan Province, and Jallozai and Kachi Garhi in the North-West Frontier Province—are about to be moved across the border under a deal with the Afghan government (where, we note, they will likely remain recruitment fodder for the Taliban).

"As Al Qaeda rebuilds in Pakistan’s tribal areas, a new generation of leaders has emerged under Osama bin Laden to cement control over the network’s operations, according to American intelligence and counterterrorism officials." Thus begins "New Generation of Qaeda Chiefs Is Seen on Rise" by Mark Mazzetti on the front page of the New York Times April 2. Mazzetti, mostly citing unnamed "intelligence officials," says a post-9-11 leadership has emerged, replacing apprehended directors like Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and running a new network of training camps in the mountains of Pakistan.