War Glance
US forces tearing down unwanted bases in Afghanistan nearly destroyed the only runway in a restive eastern province, even though major supply roads are riddled with Taliban bombs.
The base was slated for destruction because of fears that the Afghan army would struggle to secure a perimeter over 20km (12 miles) long. A US policy that unwanted bases must be totally cleared doomed the runway, and with foreign troops set to leave this year, work began in early spring to return it to dirt.
US forces in Afghanistan nearly destroyed vital airfield
At Senate Hearing, Yemeni Says U.S. Drone War Terrifying Civilians, Empowering Militants
I have met with dozens of civilians who were injured during drone strikes and other air attacks," al-Muslimi states. "I have met with relatives of people who were killed as well as numerous eyewitnesses. They have told me how these air strikes have changed their lives for the worst."
On one occasion, he met a man who described how "he stood helplessly as his 4-year-old son and 6-year-old daughter died in his arms on the way to the hospital." The man's house was targeted by mistake. He reported on another strike that killed 40 civilians and spoke to a 12-year-old boy who cried while describing being afraid of the drones buzzing overhead every night.
Obama won't send witness to Senate to explain legality of drone war
The Obama administration does not intend to send a witness to testify at a Senate hearing next week on the legality of the U.S. targeted killing program, the White House said Wednesday.
The decision illustrates the limits of President Barack Obama’s pledge in his State of the Union speech on Feb. 12 to provide greater transparency into top-secret drone operations that have killed thousands of suspected terrorists in Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen.
2 ex-Blackwater contractors ordered to prison for killing Afghans
Two former Blackwater contractors have been ordered to report to federal prison after exhausting appeals for convictions they killed civilians in Afghanistan.
Christopher Drotleff of Virginia Beach, Va., and Justin Cannon of Corpus Christi, Texas, were each convicted of involuntary manslaughter for fatally shooting two Afghan men and injured another, The (Norfolk) Virginian Pilot reported Tuesday.
Pervez Musharraf admits permitting 'a few' US drone strikes in Pakistan
Pakistan's former president Pervez Musharraf has admitted giving permission for the CIA to launch drone attacks inside his country, directly contradicting repeated claims by the Pakistani government that it has never authorised drone strikes.
His comments in a CNN interview screened on Thursday night follow US media claims this week that Pakistani officials were for years intimately involved in the US drone campaign in the country.
Pentagon reportedly gave Afghan contracts to Taliban
A Pentagon audit indicates that due to a lack of oversight, some Afghan contracts went to the Taliban. The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction compiled the audit report.
The SIGAR audit detailed that the agency found significant weaknesses in the oversight intended to keep the U.S. Department of Defense from giving contracts to Taliban and other terrorists, adding that that the Pentagon is failing to implement fail-safes designed to prevent contracts from being given to terrorists, or following up on them afterwards to apprehend them.
State Department denies cover-up over diplomat killed in Afghanistan
A US diplomat killed by a suicide bomber in southern Afghanistan was walking to a media event at a nearby high school when the attacker struck, and not travelling in a vehicle convoy as the State Department originally said.
Anne Smedinghoff died on Saturday, along with three soldiers and one other US civilian in Qalat, the small capital of Zabul province. It was the first time a State Department diplomat has been killed in Afghanistan since the 1970s.
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