Taliban

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UN Crackdown on Heroin Is Bleeding Taliban Dry

Hundreds of tons of chemicals seized

(Newser) - The UN has been quietly striking a major blow against the Taliban with a widely successful international attack on its heroin trade, Bloomberg reports. The campaign has seized several hundred tons of acetic anhydride bound for Afghanistan. Without the chemical, the Taliban can’t convert its poppy, which sells for...

Petraeus' Iraq Strategy Is Ill-Suited to Afghanistan

Counterinsurgency expert may need to learn a few new tricks to quell Taliban rebellion

(Newser) - Gen. David Petraeus faces an uphill battle in replicating the successes of the Iraq surge in Afghanistan, Michael Evans writes in the Times of London, “because the economic, social and political conditions are so different.” Afghanistan doesn’t have nearly the natural, fertile resources, and neither the US...

Taliban Breaks al-Qaeda Ties, Talks Peace: Report

Afghans deny secret Saudi-backed dialogue

(Newser) - The Taliban has broken all ties with al-Qaeda and engaged in peace talks with the Afghan government, CNN reports. The talks, held from Sept. 24-27 in Saudi Arabia, mark the first attempt to negotiate an end to the war in Afghanistan. But both Afghan and Taliban spokesmen are denying the...

Afghan Leader's Brother Tied to Drug Trade: US

Karzai denies claims, but Washington believes 'he's dirty'

(Newser) - The White House believes that the brother of Afghanistan’s US-backed president has ties to the country’s heroin trade, the New York Times reports. Hamid Karzai insists there is no firm proof against his brother, who calls himself a “victim of vicious politics.” But numerous reports from...

Latest US Strike Kills 12 in Pakistan Border Region

9 suspected militants among casualties

(Newser) - Another US airstrike today killed at least 12 people in the Pakistani province of North Waziristan, sources tell the BBC, backing off original estimates of 20 casualties. “Most were foreigners,” an official told AFP, and nine are suspected of having been Islamic militants. Taliban fighters use the area...

Red Cross: Pakistan Now a War Zone

Tribal areas become war zone as government steps up assault on militants

(Newser) - Pakistan's escalating confrontation with the Taliban has plunged the country into full-scale war, the New York Times reports. A quarter of a million people have fled the fighting as the Pakistani army attacks the militants in tribal areas on at least three fronts, and 20,000 have flooded in desperation...

Pakistan Helped Taliban Plan Afghan Attacks: Report

Leaked Spanish document alleges link between intelligence agency and militants

(Newser) - Pakistani spies armed Taliban insurgents in 2005 assassination plots against the Afghan government, Cadena Ser radio reports after obtaining a confidential Spanish defense document. Bearing the defense ministry’s seal, the report alleges that Pakistan’s intelligence gave the militants roadside bombs, and may have also provided intelligence and training....

Three Warlords Loom Large in Afghanistan

Former anti-Soviet allies come back to haunt US

(Newser) - Behind Afghanistan’s recent escalation in violence looms three faces familiar to the US intelligence community. Mohammed Omar, founding mullah of the “Big T” Taliban government; Jalaluddin Haqqani, his one-time cabinet minister; and the ruthless Gulbuddin Hekmatyar are most responsible for leading the anti-government charge, the LA Times reports—...

US Bombs Pakistani Village, Kills 6

(Newser) - Missiles launched by the US military struck a village in Pakistan's border region this morning killing at least six people, Pakistani officials told the Guardian. Two missiles were fired by a pilotless drone after it was shot at by tribesmen, reportedly striking the home of a local Taliban commander. The...

Taliban Leader Suspected in Bhutto Killing Dead

Baitullah Mehsud fell victim to kidney failure, Pakistani official say

(Newser) - The Taliban leader suspected in the December assassination of former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto died today, officials tell CNN. Baitullah Mehsud, believed to be 34, succumbed to kidney failure, sources in his native tribal region of South Waziristan said; though Pakistani military officials also claimed Mehsud had died, some...

Taliban Chief to America: Let's Make a Deal

Mullah Omar offers US troops safe passage out of Afghanistan

(Newser) - Taliban boss Mullah Omar has warned that the US will suffer defeat just like the Soviet Union if it fails to withdraw from Afghanistan, Reuters reports. In a message posted on extremist websites, the defiant leader offered American forces "safe passage" out of Afghanistan if officials reconsider their "...

Once-Nurtured Militants Have Pakistan Teetering on Brink

Paradoxically, insurgents strengthen after US-inspired strikes

(Newser) - Pakistan’s government is caught between two overbearing powers: the Taliban fighters who want to destroy it, and the American officials who inflame tensions between the government and its people. “The Pakistanis are truly concerned about their whole country unraveling,” a Western military official tells Dexter Filkins, who...

US Must Talk With Taliban: Pakistan Official

Frontier governor says insurgents have place in peace efforts

(Newser) - The governor of Pakistan’s tribal region says the US must negotiate with the Taliban if it hopes to bring peace to Afghanistan. “They have to talk to Mullah Omar, certainly—not maybe,” Owais Ghani told the Telegraph, referring to the group’s leader. “Political stability will...

Pakistan Bomb Near Miss for President, PM

Zardari was scheduled to be at reception when Marriott exploded

(Newser) - Pakistan's president and prime minister were supposed to be at a reception at the Islamabad hotel where a huge bomb killed at least 60 people and injured 270, reports the Times of London. Asif Ali Zardari and Yousaf Raza Gilani were expected to attend a large dinner at the Marriott,...

Taliban Surges Back With New Battle Plan

These are not your father's theocrats

(Newser) - Today’s Taliban bears little resemblance to the incompetent barefoot mullahs the US ousted 7 years ago. In the past year, the Taliban has reinvented itself as a confident, well-armed militia with a mighty propaganda machine, the Washington Post reports. “This is not the Taliban of Emirate times,”...

Pakistan Orders Troops to Fire if US Launches Raid

Civilian leaders say they seek diplomatic solution

(Newser) - Pakistan's military has ordered its forces to open fire if US troops launch another air or ground raid across the Afghan border, an army spokesman said today. The orders come in response to a highly unusual ground attack by American commandos earlier this month, and subsequent repeated reports of US...

Pakistan Army Fires on US Troops Trying to Cross Border

Tensions high as shots rebuff helicopters

(Newser) - Pakistani soldiers fired shots into the air to prevent American troops from crossing the border from Afghanistan into Pakistan, according to officials in the region. The BBC reports that 9 US helicopters landed at around midnight on the Afghan side of the border, and troops then tried to enter into...

Afghan Governor, 3 Others Killed by Roadside Bomb

Official had helped in 2001 US defeat of Taliban

(Newser) - A bomb detonated near Kabul killed an Afghan provincial governor and three others today, Reuters reports; Taliban militants claimed responsibility for the attack. The governor and former cabinet minister, Abdullah Wardak, had helped the US when it toppled the Taliban in 2001. It was unclear whether the roadside attack was...

US Missile Strike Kills at Least 10 in Pakistan

New fuel for tensions between US and Pakistan

(Newser) - A US missile attack killed at least 10 people today in northwest Pakistan, where many al-Qaeda and Taliban militants are based, Reuters reports. Drones fired missiles at a former government school that housed militants and their families in the latest move in  a heated US-Pakistan disagreement over militants in the...

Next Wave of Terrorist Plotters: White Men

Concern grows over US, EU citizens trained in Pakistan

(Newser) - US officials are increasingly worried that the next terror attack could be perpetrated by Americans or citizens of the European Union, MSNBC reports. Three German citizens—two ethnically German—were arrested last week in a plot to destroy a club frequented by US military personnel. The arrests have drawn attention...

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