Trends in Terrorism in Central, South Asia from 2007-2010: Report
29 June 2011
This report draws on an extensive modeling effort by Andrew C. Gagel. It provides a statistical trend of the US count of terrorist actions by terrorist organization in each region and country, along with maps of the number and density of terrorist acts. These trends and developments are summarized in a short overview for each sub region. Terrorist activity was also high in Central Asia and South Asia. Unsurprisingly, terrorist activity was the...
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Report Finds over 250,000 Displaced in Last Two Years, Criticizes Local Police Programs
28 June 2011
Afghan civilians are caught in the middle of an intensifying military campaign against a fractured armed insurgency. Despite the U.S. military’s claims of progress, insurgent attacks are up by 50% over last year, and more than 250,000 people have fled their villages in the past two years. U.S. funded and trained militias are only exacerbating this explosive situation. As the U.S. begins to draw down its forces and transition responsibilities...
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Poppy Cultivation in Afghanistan Remains Stable: World Drug Report 2011
23 June 2011
Global opium poppy cultivation reached some 195,700 hectares (ha) in 2010, a small increase over 2009, shows the flagship report launched today at United Nations Headquarters by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon; Yury Fedotov [...]. [...] Opium production declined, however, by 38 per cent to 4,860 tons due to a blight that wiped out much of the opium harvest in Afghanistan in 2010. Nonetheless, the bulk of opium production still took place in Afghanistan...
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Afghanistan NGO Safety Office Bi-Weekly Security Report
21 June 2011
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While May concluded with the reporting of extraordinary levels of conflict related activity (surpassing the previous peak recorded in August 2010), the opening period for June indicates a continuation of this momentum, reporting similarly high levels of incidents (see p. 7). This periods figures also reveal that despite security force efforts at interdiction and disruption of AOG networks (both manpower and supply related) through the winter and...
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2010 Annual Report on EU's Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection Efforts: Afghanistan
21 June 2011
In Afghanistan and Pakistan, the humanitarian crises are twofold: on the one hand, the ‘Afghan’ crisis affects not only Afghanistan but also Iran and Pakistan, where almost four million Afghan refugees are still living; on the other hand, Pakistan is affected by a twinfaceted crisis with still more than 1.2 million people displaced by the conflict and almost 20 million affected by major flooding as from July 2010. In Afghanistan the deterioration...
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Report Notes Complex Motives behind Rising Attacks by Afghan Troops on NATO Soldiers; Cites Stress as Factor
15 June 2011
In late November, U.S. soldiers were supervising artillery training for Afghan troops in Nangarhar province, close to the Pakistan border. After they climbed a ridge to assess the impact area, an Afghan border policeman suddenly turned on them and opened fire. Seconds later, six Americans and their assailant were dead. It was one of the deadliest incidents of what the military call "green on blue" -- a euphemism for attacks by members of the Afghan...
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Ninety Percent of Captured "Taliban" Were Civilians: US Data
13 June 2011
During his intensive initial round of media interviews as commander in Afghanistan in August 2010, Gen. David Petraeus released figures to the news media that claimed spectacular success for raids by Special Operations Forces: in a 90-day period from May through July, SOF units had captured 1,355 rank and file Taliban, killed another 1,031, and killed or captured 365 middle or high-ranking Taliban. The claims of huge numbers of Taliban captured and...
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May Deadliest Month on Record for Civilians: UN
13 June 2011
The UN says May was the deadliest month for civilians in Afghanistan since 2007, when the organisation started recording civilian casualties. The UN said "anti-government elements" were responsible for 82% of the 368 "conflict-related civilian deaths". "Pro-government forces", including Nato, caused 45 of the deaths. The news came as several deadly insurgent attacks killed at least 18 people, most of them civilians, in the volatile south and east...
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Children Suicide Bombers Associate Bombs with "Heaven": Analysis
02 June 2011
An alarming number of children in Pakistan and Afghanistan believe immortality is at their fingertips -- provided they're pressing a button detonating the bombs strapped to their bodies. And while most people associate a bomb blast with the finality of the grave, one young would-be suicide bomber told RFE/RL that he associates it with "heaven." A 15-year-old Afghan who was educated in a madrasah, or Islamic religious school, in the Pakistani city...
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Aid Workers Fight Secret War against HIV
31 May 2011
The checkpoints on Kabul's streets and concrete barricades around its key buildings are a reminder of the war Afghanistan has been in since 2001. But beneath some of its bridges are signs of another war - the battle against HIV. During a recent afternoon, aid workers weaved in and out among the hundreds of drug addicts who gather daily under a bridge in the Pul-e Sought-a neighbourhood of the city to smoke and inject heroin. Men of all ages huddle...
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