American advisers heighten guard in Afghanistan

Proceed with caution

U.S. military advisers are taking more precautions than ever against the threat of "insider attacks," keeping their body armor on and their weapons loaded even as they train Afghan troops inside fortified bases (NYT). Some Afghan soldiers expressed resentment over the measures, but the American advisers are taking no chances now that Afghan security forces have killed 51 NATO troops this year.

Two NATO service members were killed in the eastern Afghan province of Logar on Wednesday during an insurgent suicide bombing and subsequent firefight (AFP, AP).

Speak your mind

Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari addressed the UN General Assembly on Tuesday in New York, where he called for an international ban on hate speech such as that displayed in a recent anti-Islam film, and asked that the international community stop telling Pakistan to "do more" to fight militancy, because "no country and no people have suffered more in the epic struggle against terrorism than Pakistan" (AFP, The News, ET).

A Pakistani security official on Tuesday named two of the five suspected militants killed in a U.S. drone strike on Monday in Pakistan’s North Waziristan: a Turk named Seleh al-Turki, who was a mid-level al-Qaeda operative, and Abu Akash al-Iraqi, an Iraqi al-Qaeda member who Western counterterrorism officials have been hunting in the tribal regions for several years (NYT).  

A remote-detonated bomb in North Waziristan killed at least one Pakistani security officer and injured 15 on Wednesday (Dawn).

No vote for you

The Election Commission of Pakistan has decided that it is too late to consider giving voting rights to more than 4 million Pakistani citizens who live abroad (ET). There are suddenly many more pressing issues in the run-up to the 2013 election than organizing the logistics of voting facilities for the Pakistani diaspora.

— Jennifer Rowland