Pakistan's daily Dawn reports March 2 that the country's security forces have captured Mullah Obaidullah Akhund, deputy to the elusive Taliban chief, Mullah Mohammad Omar. The newspaper cited a government official in Quetta, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Mullah Obaidullah, supposedly arrested Feb. 27, is the most senior Taliban figure captured since the ouster of the militia from power in Afghanistan in November 2001. He served as defense minister in the Taliban regime, and there is a $1 million price on his head. He is on the US "most wanted" list and a member of the 10-man Taliban Leadership Council announced by the Taliban supreme leader in June 2003. His arrest came the day US Vice President Dick Cheney arrived in Islamabad, but the official said the action which led to his arrest had been planned in advance. He said that two others captured with Obaidullah "could be" Amir Khan Haqqani, a Taliban commander in Zabul, and Abdul Bari, the former governor of Helmand province.

Around 25,000 rallied in the Afghan capital Kabul Feb. 22, calling for a war crimes amnesty for former Mujahedeen commanders to be made law. The protesters, who gathered in a stadium, included ex-Mujahedeen and several top government officials. "Whoever is against mujahedeen is against Islam and they are the enemies of this country," former fighter Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, who is now an influential lawmaker, told the crowd. Supporters later marched through the streets of the city, shouting "Death to the enemies of Afghanistan!" and "Death to America!" (BBC, Feb. 23) Later that day, the upper house of Afghanistan's parliament, the Meshrano Jirga, approved the amnesty bill. The vote came three weeks after the 249-seat lower house, or Wolesi Jirga, approved it. The bill now goes to President Hamid Karzai for his signature. (IRIN, Feb. 22)

Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, leader of Afghanistan's rebel Hizb-i-Islami rebel movement, has released a video denouncing the US as "the mother of problems" and pledging that US and NATO forces will be driven from the country, likely this year. "As long as America remains in Afghanistan and in the region, war and problems will continue," he says in the video. "I can say with full assurance and confidence that America does not have the ability to stay for a long period in Afghanistan... My analysis is that America [will] pull out from Iraq and Afghanistan simultaneously and the withdrawal perhaps will happen this year." (AlJazeera, Feb. 22)

Just as Britain has announced a draw-down of 1,600 troops in Iraq, comes the news it will be sending some 1,000 more troops to Afghanistan. Of the 35,000 NATO troops in Afghanistan, some 5,600 are British, mainly deployed in Helmand. (The Independent, Feb. 23) Australia has also announced it will send more crack SAS troops to Afghanistan. There are currently 550 Australian soldiers in Afghanistan, mostly in Oruzgan. (The West, Australia, Feb. 23) NATO took command of US-led coalition forces in Afghanistan in October. (ISAF homepage) US National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley after a Feb. 22 meeting with NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer called upon other alliance members to shoulder more of the burden in Afghanistan. (OnlineNews, Pakistan, Feb. 22)

Why isn't this in the headlines? From the Institute for War & Peace Reporting, Feb. 12:

The Taleban have taken control of their second Helmand district in less than two weeks, say district officials.

The Taleban captured the police chief of Washir district and 30 of his officers when they were out on patrol Sunday, February 11, according to a high-ranking district official, who wanted his identity withheld. “They then went to the district centre, where they took control, disarming the rest of the police,” said the official.

Afghanistan's eastern Zabul province is in the news at the moment because a US Chinook helicopter just crashed there, killing eight soldiers and wounding 14. The Taliban, as usual, claimed it was brought down by one of their missiles, and the US, as usual, denies it. (IHT, Feb. 18) But this Feb. 19 story from Pakistan's The News shows the kind of courage needed by Zabul's women to stand up for simple dignity against a local regime of Islamist tyranny five years and counting after "Operation Enduring Freedom":

Days after bomb blasts and insurgent attacks in Iranian Baluchistan, more terror in Pakistani Baluchistan. To what extent is this a Baluch ethnic insurgency, and to what extent a Sunni fundamentalist jihad? Or is it both? One shudders to think how complex the intrigues behind this are. The Baluch militants in Pakistan are said to be backed by Iran, while Pakistan's intelligence apparatus has long quietly backed the Sunni jihadists to further Islamabad's ambitions in Kashmir and (with CIA connivance) Afghanistan. Are the Baluch being pitted against each other as have the Kurds? Maybe the Baluch are starting to shake off all such manipulators and struggle for a unified independent Baluchistan—just as there is more talk of a unified Pashtunistan straddling Pakistan and Afghanistan, after centuries of the Pashtuns serving as pawns in the Great Game. From Reuters, via the UAE's Khaleej Times, Feb. 18:

From AFP, Feb. 14 (links added):

WASHINGTON - The Pentagon announced plans to maintain some 27,000 US troops in Afghanistan -- the most since it went to war there more than five years ago -- to try to crush a resurgence of the Taliban.