AFGHANISTAN: The Taliban’s latest weapons

Ravi Velloor | The Straight Times | Moby Media Group | July 3, 2011

IN Uruzgan, central Afghanistan, two days ago, men approached an eight-year-old girl and told her to take a bag to a nearby police contingent. As the child approached a police vehicle, militants standing at a safe distance detonated the bomb in the bag with a remote-controlled device.

The policemen survived, but the girl was blown to bits. Add one more to the Taliban’s latest strategy of using children and women for suicide attacks.

In the swathe of largely ungoverned territory across the Afghanistan-Pakistan borderlands and beyond, the Taliban are resorting to desperate tactics to catch the patrolling army and policemen off-guard, such as fitting children as young as six with explosive vests and sending them up to uniformed men standing at checkpoints or sitting in police vehicles.

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PAKISTAN: Are Pakistan’s Taliban using children as weapons?

Christian Science Monitor | Owais Tohid | June 22, 2011

A 9-year-old girl says she was kidnapped in Pakistan by Taliban with the intent of forcing her to be a suicide bomber. She escaped, but her experience raises concerns about the use of children by militants.

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AFGHANISTAN: May Deadliest Month for Afghan Civilians

UNAMA | June 11, 2011

May 2011 was the deadliest month for Afghan civilians since at least 2007, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said today. UNAMA documented 368 conflict-related civilian deaths in May and 593 civilian injuries.

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AFGHANISTAN: Canada paid $1M in compensation to Afghan civilians aught in the crossfire

The Canadian Press | Steve Rennie | June 9, 2011

OTTAWA — The Canadian government has shelled out more than $1 million in goodwill payments to compensate hundreds of Afghans for deaths and damages incurred over the course of Canada’s mission in Afghanistan.

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AFGHANISTAN: Obama says sorry to Karzai for civilian deaths

AFP | June 8, 2011

WASHINGTON — US President Barack Obama on Wednesday expressed his “sorrow” in a video conference with Afghan President Hamid Karzai over recent civilian casualties in Afghanistan, his spokesman said.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said Obama spoke to Karzai for an hour and discussed a number of topics, including the implications of the death of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in a US special forces raid in May.

“The president expressed his sorrow over tragic civilian casualties, most recently in Helmand province,” Carney said.

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