Six Afghan children and their parents were killed in a NATO air strike in the east of Afghanistan, local officials reported on Sunday. On the same day, NATO confirmed the deaths of four coalition service members in separate roadside bomb attacks.
Four members of NATO staff, one believed to be a British soldier, have been killed in Afghanistan in separate roadside bomb attacks, the alliance announced on Sunday. Their deaths push the number of NATO service members killed this month up to 33.
Former Taliban official turned peace negotiator Arsala Rahmani was assassinated on May 13th in Kabul. His death strikes yet another blow to peace efforts in Afghanistan. Meanwhile, Uighur exiles hold their biggest gathering in three years in Tokyo and make China see red. Finally, pop sensation Lady Gaga runs into trouble in Indonesia. Authorities say she can't perform there because her songs are too racy.
In a major blow to Afghanistan's peace process, gunmen shot dead a former Taliban minister and top negotiator from the country's High Peace Council on Sunday, police said. Maulvi Arsala Rahmani had been involved in negotiations with insurgents.
Two men dressed in Afghan police uniforms opened fire on coalition troops in the south of the country on Saturday leaving two UK soldiers dead, according to a NATO statement.
At least 24 people were killed when a Taliban suicide bomber targeted a Pakistani police station near the Afghan border on Friday. The police chief and deputy of a force fighting a local Islamist insurgency were among those killed.
Afghan-led forces, bolstered by US-led coalition helicopters, overcame insurgents holed up in two buildings in Kabul early Monday, putting an end to an 18-hour Taliban attack on the Afghan capital.
US and Afghan officials agreed on Sunday to put Afghan security in charge of night raids by special forces on insurgent hideouts. The raids have triggered anger among locals and been a source of rising tensions between Kabul and Washington.
More than 100,000 people have fled the north-west Khyber tribal region since government troops launched a January offensive against Taliban and al Qaeda-linked militants, the UN refugee agency said on Friday.
Around 100 Westerners, including a dozen French citizens, are currently being monitored by intelligence services in Islamabad. Some are joining the "Holy War" in training camps along the Pakistani-Afghan border. Between 2006 and 2010, Pakistan was the destination of choice for these "jihad tourists". Mohamed Merah, the 23-year-old Frenchman who killed seven people in Toulouse, also claimed to have trained in one such camp.
