South Asia

Word is trickling out now about a Taliban attack on workers and security guards that killed some 30 persons and wounded 15 others, while yet others were taken captive. The victims had been working on a road in Sangin, Helmand Province. Roads allow easier government penetration of provincial areas, and this consideration may have led […]

Pakistan

500,000 evacuated from Jacobabad as Floodwaters head toward Sindh

Juan Cole

As Pakistan’s massive flooding continues, Some 500,000 people have been forced to evacuate the Sindhi city of Jacobabad, suddenly finding themselves homeless. Ordinarily this sort of catastrophe would be news in itself, but with 4 million or so Pakistanis displaced, it is just one more piece of bad news. In one area of Sindh, 25,000 […]

Pakistan

6 Million Pakistanis need Immediate Aid as 1/3 of Country is Submerged

Juan Cole

I can barely believe the words I am writing are not a nightmare from which I will soon wake up. A third of Pakistan is now under water, and fresh rainfall threatens two more waves of flooding in the southern Sindh province. Courtesy BBC The submerged area of the country is as big as the […]

Afghanistan

2 Marines Killed, Base Attacked in Afghanistan;
Civilian Surge in Doubt

Juan Cole

A prisoner trying to escape a US detention center in southern Afghanistan grabbed a gun and killed two US Marines before being cut down. The two US deaths brought the NATO total of fatalities for the weekend through Monday to 8, with the others having been killed by roadside bombs. In Paktika Province in the […]

Pakistan

Pakistan Flooding Threatens Grain Crop

Juan Cole

Two million more people have been affected by Pakistan’s floods– 13 million — than were affected by the 2005 tsunami in the Indian Ocean and the Haiti earthquake combined. (The other disasters surpassed Pakistan’s floods in their over-all death rates). The entire city of Muzaffargarh in Pakistani Kashmir south Punjab is being evacuated and is […]

Afghanistan

Rudolph: Can You Pass the Terrorism Quiz?

Juan Cole

Jeffrey Rudolph writes in a guest editorial for Informed Comment Can You Pass the Terrorism Quiz? Misconceptions about terrorism, regularly promoted by the mainstream media, have facilitated harmful US government actions—two wars, domestic legislation that curtailed civil liberties, excessive national security spending. That basic, factual information about terrorism is so rarely reported thus serves to […]

Pakistan

12 Million Affected by Pakistan Floods

Juan Cole

The horrific flood in Pakistan, the worst in its history, has now destroyed more homes (650,000) than the 2005 earthquake. And, some 12 million Pakistanis, nearly 10 percent of the country’s population, have been at least somewhat affected by the floods. About 1600 persons have been killed. The floods, having hit first the Khyber-Pukhtunkhwa Province […]

Afghanistan

Dispute over Civilian Casualties Roils US-Afghan Relations

Juan Cole

Between 4 and 12 civilians were killed by US troops in a nighttime raid in Nangarhar province on Wednesday, NATO admitted today. Nangarhar has repeatedly been the scene of public protests against the foreign troop presence. In fact, the wikileaks Pentagon documents show that local protests against US and NATO troops have been widespread, routine, […]

Afghanistan

Taliban influence Spreading in Afghanistan

Juan Cole

A former Afghan warlord who turned to supporting President Hamid Karzai and two others were blown up at a soccer match in the northern city of Qunduz by Taliban. A bus full of civilians on its way between Helmand and Qandahar provinces in the Pashtun south hit a roadside bomb, which killed 6 and wounded […]