Ron Synovitz is a senior correspondent for RFE/RL.
Osama bin Laden in a screen grab from Al-Jazeera (RFE/RL) PRAGUE, October 6, 2006 (RFE/RL) -- Today marks the fifth anniversary of the first U.S. military strikes in Afghanistan following the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States. Afghan President Hamid Karzai has described the event as the start of a counterterrorism campaign for "the salvation of Afghanistan."
Afghanistan's Reconciliation Commission is due to visit the U.S. detention center at Bagram Air Field soon in a bid to get more detainees released.
A new U.S. law will allow suspected terrorists to be detained indefinitely without formal charges, as well as trials before a military commission.
The Afghan and Pakistani leaders are publicly trading accusations about who is responsible for terrorism in South Asia.
Pakistan's president says that after the September 2001 attacks, the U.S. demanded his country cooperate fully with the U.S. campaign against the Taliban and Al-Qaeda.
Pakistan's president recently said that the "center of gravity" of terrorism is in southern Afghanistan, and the Taliban now pose a greater threat than Al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden.
The head of the UN's Office on Drugs and Crime has called for "robust military action" to destroy the opium industry in the south.
Islamabad says a cease-fire deal signed this week with pro-Taliban militants near the border with Afghanistan could end years of unrest in Pakistan's tribal regions. The accord -- signed with militants in North Waziristan -- calls on local tribesmen to expel foreign militants and end cross-border attacks into Afghanistan. In return, Pakistan's military say it will reduce its presence in the tribal areas.
Efforts to rebuild Afghanistan are being overshadowed by resurgent Taliban violence, a thriving opium trade, warlordism, government corruption, and slow economic development.
Three days of demonstrations in Baluchistan Province have put mounting pressure on the government.
U.S. officials say agreement has been reached with Afghan and Pakistani officials that will improve security along the volatile border.
Music is opening a new world to 18 Afghan girls and young women enrolled in a cultural program in northern Afghanistan. The United Nations, which is helping to implement the program, says it is aimed at strengthening the voice of women in society. But conservative Islamic clerics in Mazar-e Sharif say the Koran forbids women from singing or learning to play musical instruments.
A new UN report on opium farming will show that cultivation this year is up to 40 percent higher than in 2005.
NATO countries with forces in Afghanistan are bringing in new vehicles to protect troops from improvised explosive devices.
Members of a South Korean Christian aid group that tried to organize a three-day "peace festival" have been expelled after Islamic clerics accused them of proselytizing.
NATO is ramping up its mission in Afghanistan. In the future, troops will engage in combat and commanders will be able to order preemptive strikes.
The Taliban's seizure of two remote districts in the Afghan province of Helmand on July 16 has raised concerns about how well NATO can maintain security in remote parts of the country.
An Afghan lawmaker is contesting claims by the U.S.-led coalition about battle casualties in his home province of Oruzgan. He says the killing of civilians by coalition air strikes in southern Afghanistan is going unreported.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai (file photo) (epa) Efforts by the Afghan government to recruit militia fighters as security along the Afghan-Pakistan border have raised concerns about reforms in the country. President Hamid Karzai's government says it does not want to bring entire militia groups into Afghanistan's security services. But experts remain skeptical, saying any move to arm or pay militia fighters in southern Afghanistan as police is a dangerous step that could set back years of work to disarm warlords and their fighters.
There have been more combat-related deaths in southern Afghanistan during the past two months than any similar time period since the U.S-led coalition's campaign against the Taliban regime in late 2001.
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