Daily brief: seven militants killed in Kashmir

In and out

Pakistani outlets report that yesterday morning three NATO gunship helicopters flew several hundred yards into Pakistani territory in the country’s northwest Kurram agency, stayed for about 20 minutes, and flew back to Afghanistan (ET, Dawn, Daily Times). A military official said the choppers were "dumping supplies at a checkpost" near the border, which Pakistani authorities knew about. Clashes between Pakistani security forces and militants continue in Swat and Mohmand, where militants attacked a convoy and destroyed a government-run school (ET, The News, Daily Times).

Pakistan’s government has reportedly issued a high alert for all international airports in the country, specifically on outgoing foreign-bound cargo in light of the recent al-Qaeda linked plot in which mail bombs were found en route from Yemen to the U.S. (Dawn). Rangers in Karachi arrested more than 100 people yesterday in connection with ongoing violence in the city, and a Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan commander believed to be behind a 2009 suicide bombing in Mingora, Swat was also captured today (ET, ET).

Flood watch: Only 39 percent of the U.N.’s two billion dollar appeal for aid for Pakistani flood victims has been pledged, and authorities continue to worry about the donation slowdown and impending winter (AFP). Some areas of Sindh are still three to six feet underwater, and more than 20 million people have been affected by the flooding.

Flashpoint

As many as seven militants, some of whom are said to be affiliated with Lashkar-e-Taiba, were killed in four separate gun battles with Indian security forces in Indian-administered Kashmir, days before U.S. President Barack Obama’s visit to Mumbai and Delhi (AP, ToI, HT, Reuters). Hardline separatist leader Syed Ali Geelani has called for a shutdown across the valley today, and the more moderate Mirwaiz Umar Farooq has been under house arrest since yesterday morning (HT, ToI).

Unintended consequences at work

Military operations designed to clear Taliban militants out of rural areas of Kandahar have pushed them into Kandahar City, where two-thirds of the local government jobs are unfilled due to concerns about intimidation and low pay (WSJ, Post). U.S. officials say the local government is a "skeleton staff of unskilled bureaucrats that is incapable of functioning on its own," despite months of American prodding to build up a competent administration in Kandahar, in part because power is "monopolized" by the central government in Kabul (Post). Yesterday, a bomb killed a mechanic as he was placing explosives in a car in Kandahar (Pajhwok).

A British military commander said the price of ammonium nitrate, a key ingredient in roadside bombs in Afghanistan, has increased tenfold in the last several months, suggesting that Taliban supply lines have been successfully disrupted (Guardian). Maj. Gen. Nick Carter also said that the price of other IED components like detonators has gone up 11 times. 

Afghan authorities say the Afghan police officers who were guarding the small district of Khogyani in Ghazni early Monday morning, when a group of insurgents briefly overran several government buildings, were abducted by the Taliban, whose spokesman said earlier that they had defected, as did the local police chief (LAT, NYT). What happened to the policemen is unknown.

A shattered industry

The popular decorative glass industry in the western Afghan province of Herat is in the brink of collapse due to a lack of markets for the trinkets (Pajhwok). A local industrialist warned that glass-making traditions will die if the Afghan government does not provide a bailout.

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