Archives for October 2009

Pakistan’s military began “Phase 2” of its campaign in South Waziristan on Thursday, with a siege of Kotkai, the home town of Hakimullah Mahsud, the leader of the Taliban Movement of Pakistan. So far the army claims to have killed 100 militants, and 300 homes are said to have been damaged. Locals maintain that some […]

President Barack Obama’s meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Tuesday generated few deadlines, but some important things were said. Obama stressed the need for the Iraqi parliament to pass an election law to enable parliamentary elections to be held on January 16. If the law isn’t passed soon, the elections won’t be held […]

Two suicide bombers attacked the campus of the Islamic International University in Islamabad on Tuesday (with one of them tageting the women students), killing 6 persons and wounding 37. The attacks had two contexts. They were meant as revenge for the Pakistani government campaign against the Taliban in Waziristan. But they also were patriarchal protests […]

The UN-sponsored Electoral Complaints Commission in Afghanistan has determined that after fraudulent ballots are thrown out, incumbent Hamid Karzai received less than 50% of the vote, forcing him into a runoff with challenger Abdullah Abdullah. Karzai is now expected to accept on Tuesday that he must face a second round of elections, though over the […]

Islamabad’s campaign against the Pakistani Taliban in South Waziristan is largely irrelevant to the struggles of the US and NATO in Afghanistan across the Durand Line, according to Afghanistan News Net. The relevant groups are the Old Taliban led by Mullah Omar, based in Quetta; the Haqqani Network of Siraj and Jalaluddin Haqqani, based in […]

Dawn reports that about 30,000 Pakistani troops on Saturday moved into South Waziristan, a stronghold of the Mahsud tribe, whence have sprung important leaders of the Tehrik-i Taliban Pakistan or Pakistani Taliban Movement. One such leader, Baitullah Mahsud, was killed by a US drone strike this past August. The fighting continued for a second day […]

A Taliban roadside bomb attack killed 4 US soldiers in the south of the country, it was announced Friday. Gareth Porter reports on an alternative to Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s proposal for an additional 40,000 US troops in Afghanistan. Lt. Col. Daniel L Davis, who has experience in Iraq and Afghanistan and canvassed other officers with […]

Four pieces of news from what Washington now calls AfPak raised questions about the stability of Central and South Asia on Thursday and Friday morning. Given the energy resources in Central Asia and the emergence of India as a regional superpower, the destabilization of this region and continued American military involvement with it has momentous […]