Afghanistan

Key Afghan Security Officials Sacked by Karzai
Taliban Reject Peace Talks
Bombings in Jalalabad, Kunduz, Qandahar

The security situation in Afghanistan continued to be bad on Sunday. In Jalalabad in the eastern Pashtun region, a roadside bomb targeting a US convoy injured 13 Afghans. It may be that the attack also killed a US soldier, since one was reported KIA in ‘eastern Afghanistan.’ In Qandahar to the southwest and in Kunduz […]

Afghanistan

Taliban Commander Maulvi Fazlullah Said Killed in Nuristan

Juan Cole

Conflicting reports are emerging from the province of Nuristan in Afghanistan, some alleging that Maulvi Fazlullah, a.k.a. ‘Mulla Radio,’ has been killed in fierce fighting along with six companions. On Thursday, a group of insurgents took on Afghanistan National Army troops in Nuristan, with heavy fighting continuing on Friday. Maulvi Fazlullah was one of the […]

Afghanistan

Taliban Attack Qandahar Airfield; Parliament goes on Strike

Juan Cole

Guerrillas fired mortar shells and used small arms to attack the major US military base in south Afghanistan, Qandahar Airfield, on Saturday. The operation was the third major attack by insurgents during the past week. They had also attacked a NATO convoy in the capital, Kabul, and had attacked Bagram Base north of Kabul. The […]

Afghanistan

Kabul Blast Kills 19, Wounds 52; 5 US Troops Dead

Juan Cole

The BBC is reporting that Afghan guerrillas deployed a suicide car bomb against a NATO military convoy in west Kabul near the parliament building Tuesday morning, killing at least 19 persons and wounding 52. Five US troops are said among the dead. MSNBC has a good video report: The enormous fireball destroyed twenty vehicles. Spokesman […]

Afghanistan

Afghanistan: 57 Insurgent Attacks a Day; Taliban Vow Major Campaign; Karzai to Visit Washington

Juan Cole

The guerrilla forces in Afghanistan had launched new attacks on NATO and Afghanistan National Army targets in the past few days, after weeks in which they were busy making sure to get their cut of the profits from the poppy-based heroin trade. The return to the battlefield is an annual late spring and summer ritual […]

Afghanistan

Suspect Arrested in Times Square Bomb Plot; Afghan anger at NATO Grows

Juan Cole

As US authorities arrested Faisal Shahzad, a Pakistani-American recently returned from Peshawar, on suspicion of ties to the Pakistani Taliban and involvement in the Times Square bomb plot, bad news is coming from Afghanistan itself. Pashtuns in the affected areas appear to be angry at the US invasion of Marjah this winter and convinced that […]

Afghanistan

NATO Troops Kill MP Relative; Anti-American Demonstrations Nangarhar Demand US Withdrawal

Juan Cole

NATO forces raided the home in Nangarhar of Afghan parliamentarian Safia Siddiqi Wednesday night, in the course of which they killed her brother-in-law. In response, crowds in Nangarhar blocked a major thoroughfare in protest. The Dari Persian press says that crowds came out to demonstrate all over Nangarhar Province, chanting anti-American slogans and demanding that […]

Afghanistan

Taliban Resemble Successful Insurgencies

Juan Cole

CSM reports on a RAND study by Ben Conable and Martin Libicki of 89 major insurgencies in the 20th century and early 21st, and what they might tell us about the likelihood of Obama succeeding in Afghanistan. Connable found that weak governments prevail militarily against insurgencies only 10 percent of the time. RAND’s own news […]

Afghanistan

170 Killed in Afghanistan as Gates, Cheney, Palin Wrangle over Karzai

Juan Cole

170 people were killed in Afghanistan during the past week in political violence, according to an interior ministry spokesman. Radio Azadi reports in Persian that the spokesman said Monday morning that there were 117 terrorist attacks in the country in the past week, quadruple the number in the previous week. The violence is placing in […]