Militants storm Afghan government compound

Fierce fighting

Insurgents stormed a government compound in the eastern Afghan province of Nuristan on Friday, after suicide bombers blew themselves up at the gate to provide them entry, sparking an hours-long gunfight that left four women, three policemen, and three members of a pro-government militia dead (AP, ET, NYT). NATO provided Afghan security forces with air support in the form of one bombing run, but the fighting did not end until hours later when the last militant was killed.

An Afghan policeman opened fire on British troops after an argument on Sunday in the southern Afghan province of Helmand, killing three of them in what appears to be the latest incident of "green-on-blue" violence (NYT, Tel, Reuters, Guardian, AFP). The Obama administration is reportedly considering transferring to Afghan custody an undisclosed number of Taliban fighters who were captured early on in the war and sent to the military detention facility at Guantánamo Bay, in an effort to restart peace talks with the Taliban (AP).

And a proposed revision of an Afghan media law threatens to curb press freedoms by allowing the government to restrict foreign programming, in a move some media advocates say is in preparation for the return to government of some pro-Taliban, conservative players (Reuters).

Deadly strike

A U.S. drone strike in the Shawal district of North Waziristan on Sunday killed at least eight suspected militants (Dawn, ET/AFP, Reuters, AP).  The strike reportedly targeted fighters loyal to the local militant leader Hafiz Gul Bahadur, but may have also killed foreigners belonging to the Turkmenistan Islamic Movement.

Pakistani security officials said Monday that dozens of militants from Afghanistan had snuck across the border to attack a check post in Pakistan’s northwestern tribal region on Sunday, and six of them were killed in a firefight with Pakistani security forces in Upper Dir (AFP). A local Taliban commander known as Mullah Mansoor was killed in a clash with Pakistani security forces in Dir on Sunday (ET). And six militants were killed in Khyber Agency on Saturday when the homemade explosive device they were attempting to plant exploded accidentally (CNN).

The Express Tribune reported this weekend that a "credible source" says Pakistan has secretly been allowing NATO to ship lethal material via Pakistani airspace, despite the parliament’s decision earlier this year to continue blocking the shipment of NATO supplies through Pakistani ground or air space (ET). Pakistan’s ban on NATO shipments has reportedly cost the Pentagon more than $2.1 billion in extra transport costs (USA Today).

Indian investigators have provided the Associated Press with details of the man they believe was central to the 2008 Mumbai attacks, Syed Zabiuddin Ansari, also known as Abu Jundal, who was arrested at the New Delhi airport on June 21 (AP). Ansari told investigators that he fled a police raid in India in 2006, travelling first to Bangladesh and then to Pakistan, where he trained with the Pakistani militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba, and added that Pakistani intelligence officials were in the Karachi "control room" from which the Mumbai attacks were directed.

Executive power play

While ordinary Pakistanis continue to suffer through hours of power outages every day, the Islamabad Electric Supply Company (IESCO) has provided the new Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf with a special electrical line that is immune to the scheduled "load-shedding" (ET). An IESCO superintendent said the arrangement is just in case of emergency, and that no government official forced it to install the facility, but also indicated that the house is usually unoccupied, leaving neighbors wondering why an empty house needs an emergency power line.

— Jennifer Rowland