Taliban Break Free over 480 Inmates Out of Afghan Jail
26 April 2011
The diggers finally poked through Sunday and spent 4 1/2 hours ferrying away more than 480 inmates without a shot being fired, according to the Taliban and Afghan officials. Most of the prisoners were Taliban militants. Accounts of the extraordinary prison break, carried out in the dead of night, suggest collusion with prison guards, officials or both. Following a recent wave of assassinations here, the breakout underscores the weakness of the Afghan...
Read the post »
NATO Air Strike in Kunar Kills Top al-Qaida Fighter
26 April 2011
One of the most important al-Qaida fighters in Afghanistan was killed this month, the US-led coalition has revealed. Nato's International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) said the killing of Abu Hafs al-Najdi, also known as Abdul Ghani, in an air strike in eastern Afghanistan was a "significant milestone in the disruption of al-Qaida" in the country. The veteran Saudi Arabian militant had been on an Isaf hitlist since at least 2007. He was killed...
Read the post »
Newly Released Classified Documents Offer Insights into Guantanamo Detainees
26 April 2011
A trove of more than 700 classified military documents provides new and detailed accounts of the men who have done time at the Guantánamo Bay prison in Cuba, and offers new insight into the evidence against the 172 men still locked up there. Military intelligence officials, in assessments of detainees written between February 2002 and January 2009, evaluated their histories and provided glimpses of the tensions between captors and captives....
Read the post »
American Disapproval of Obama’s Management of Afghan War Rises: Poll
26 April 2011
More Americans disapprove of President Obama's management of the war in Afghanistan than support it, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll, a finding that reflects the public’s broader concern over the course of the nearly decade-old conflict. Americans have given Obama wide leeway in escalating the conflict in Afghanistan, which as a presidential candidate he called “the war we have to win.” That latitude is changing...
Read the post »
U.S. Watchdog Critical of Afghan Police Administration
26 April 2011
Afghanistan's government does not know exactly how many people work for its national police force, creating a risk that foreign funds for police salaries are being abused, a U.S. watchdog said on Monday. The audit of Afghan police personnel and payroll systems by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, known as SIGAR, came as U.S. commanders prepare to hand greater control of security to Afghans and start withdrawing. Since...
Read the post »