Car bombs, drones, and floods
At
least 20 people, including women and children, were killed yesterday
when a car bomb with an estimated 400 pounds of explosives detonated at a
police headquarters in Kohat in northwest Pakistan (CNN, Dawn, ET, NYT, AJE, Geo, AFP, AP, Tel).
The Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan have reportedly taken responsibility for
the bombing, their fourth claimed attack in the last several days (CNN).
A pair of suspected drone strikes has reportedly killed up to 14 alleged militants associated with the Haqqani network in North Waziristan, bringing the total number of reported strikes in the last week up to six (CNN, AFP, AP, BBC, Geo). In the Swat Valley,
a Taliban spokesman has taken credit for the bombing of another girls'
school, saying the attack was in response to alleged military raids on
mosques in the area (BBC, Daily Times).
The Pakistani military has again declared Orakzai agency, where
operations have been taking place for the last five and a half months,
cleared of militants, 600 of whom were killed and 250 arrested (Dawn, ET).
Flood watch:
The U.N. has estimated that ten million Pakistanis are without shelter
following six weeks of flooding, and a spokesman confirmed cases of
cholera in the country (Dawn, NYT).
An area of Sindh is still under red alert for potential flooding, and a
breach has flooded 25 more villages, affected some 20,000 people (Geo, Dawn).
Flashpoint
Indian
police have reportedly arrested hardline separatist leader Syed Ali
Shah Geelani in Indian-administered Kashmir, sparking protests in
curfewed areas of Srinagar (AP, Hindu, AFP).
The new police chief in Kashmir said Indian security forces are now
using non-lethal means to control demonstrators in the valley, where 69
people have been killed and hundreds wounded since June (AP).
Too big to fail
After
a dropoff in withdrawals from the struggling Kabul Bank yesterday,
earlier today Afghan police from the country's domestic intelligence
agency beat back a crowd of hundreds of Afghan government employees
seeking to withdraw funds before a four-day holiday (WSJ, Post, Reuters, FT).
Guards from the National Directorate of Security also reportedly
threatened to destroy cameras of journalists trying to cover the mob
scene (Post).
Afghan
President Hamid Karzai's brother Mahmoud, the Kabul Bank's third
largest shareholder, reportedly made a profit of nearly $1 million on
the sale of a villa in Dubai that had allegedly been purchased with
funds from the Kabul Bank (Post, NYT).
Karzai commented, "What is wrong with this? I borrowed money from the
bank and made an investment," and said he repaid the loan in full. The
NYT reports on the complex connections between the Afghan president and
his family, the Kabul Bank, and the family of the First Vice President,
the Fahims (NYT).
Dispatch from the front
Some
10-12,000 Afghan soldiers and 5,000 police, backed by 15,000
international forces, are reportedly planning an offensive against 1,000
insurgents in the southern province of Kandahar, to be cleared within
two to three months (AP, Reuters, McClatchy).
NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said yesterday that NATO
forces should be able to begin transitioning control to Afghans sometime
next year, though didn't specify when (AP).
Rasmussen also said the Afghan government needs to "strengthen the
fight against corruption" because "All these stories about
irregularities and corruption are damaging for public support for our
presence in Afghanistan" (Post).
The
Journal interviews Gen. David Petraeus, the top commander in
Afghanistan, who described a strategy of expanding "security bubbles"
around the country, and said he wants to revamp how the U.S. assesses
progress in Afghanistan, where he expects more violence in the coming
months (WSJ). IED attacks have reportedly flattened out in the past year, though shootings are up.
The Taliban in Afghanistan have taken credit for a suicide attack this
morning in the northern province of Baghlan, which killed two Afghan
policemen (Tolo).
Also in Baghlan, the Taliban warned that they will attempt to disrupt
Afghanistan's parliamentary elections next weekend; more than 900 of the
country's voting sites will be closed because of security concerns on
election day, September 18 (Tolo, AP).
Britain's
envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles, has just
quit his post effective immediately after reports that he clashed with
NATO and U.S. officials over talks with the Taliban (AFP, BBC, AP, Independent, Pajhwok).
He will be replaced by diplomat Karen Pierce, who is already in charge
of London's Afghanistan policy; the Foreign Office said a separate
special representative is no longer necessary.
Hollywood help
Actress
and U.N. Goodwill Ambassador Angelina Jolie is in Nowshera in northwest
Pakistan to visit victims of the flooding and raise awareness of the
situation, which she called "extraordinarily complex" (AFP, ET, BBC, The News).This is her fourth visit to Pakistan.
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