Taliban Video Shows Young Boy Beheading Prisoner

(NEWSER) - The Bush administration stonewalled human rights organizations and branches of the US government that sought an investigation into the alleged mass murder of Taliban prisoners in Afghanistan in 2001, the New York Times reports. As many as 1,500 people may have died in the incident, under the command of a Northern Alliance general in league with the CIA. The general has held high posts in the Karzai government, leading some to believe the apparent reluctance to investigate was politically motivated. More»

Will redeploy 6K troops from Indian to Afghan border

(NEWSER) - After deploying jets and helicopters yesterday in response to a Taliban incursion into the Buner district, Pakistan has taken back a key town, the military says. The country will also shift 6,000 troops from the Indian border to face militants along the Afghan border, said an official, a move welcomed by American authorities who say Pakistan is doing too little to battle militants, the New York Times reports. More»

Crackdown targets Khyber Pass militants

(AP) - Pakistan closed the main route used to ferry supplies to US and allied troops in Afghanistan today after launching a fresh offensive against militants in the area. The road through the Khyber Pass in the northwest of Pakistan has faced increasing attacks by militants seeking to squeeze Western forces fighting a resurgent Taliban in Afghanistan in recent months. More»

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 border region as Afghanistan’s insurgency grows. Pakistan condemned a US troop assault last week inside its borders, the first since 2001. More»

Drone attack is the latest of several near Afghan border

(NEWSER) - A suspected US airstrike on Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan killed at least 5 people today, part of a stepped-up effort against militants in the region, the AP reports. The victims' identities remained unclear. Conflicting intelligence reports called them either al-Qaeda operatives or innocent women and children, AFP notes. US drones reportedly killed 4 low-level militants in a similar drone strike yesterday. More»