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US military
Former UN envoy criticizes Taliban arrests
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The UN’s former envoy to Afghanistan, Kai Eide, has strongly criticized Pakistan’s recent arrest of high-ranking Taliban leaders. Eide told the BBC the arrests had completely stopped a channel of secret communications with the UN. Pakistani officials insist the arrests were not an attempt to spoil talks. Jason Margolis reports. Download MP3
Counting underway in Iraqi election
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The voter turnout in Iraq’s general elections was 62%, officials say, despite attacks that killed 38 people. Preliminary results are not expected for several days but the turnout figure is down from the 75% who voted in the 2005 general elections. Prime Minister Nouri Maliki’s State of Law Coalition is widely expected to win the most seats. Ben Gilbert is reporting from the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk. Download MP3 (Photo: Ben Gilbert) The Iraqi election in Kirkuk
President Barack Obama hailed a “milestone” in the history of Iraq, as it completed its second parliamentary election since the 2003 invasion. He praised the courage of voters who turned out despite bomb and mortar attacks that killed at least 35 people. Reporter Ben Gilbert has been covering the election for The World from the northern city of Kirkuk.
Kirkuk and the Iraqi election
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Nearly 1.5 million Iraqis living abroad have begun casting their votes in parliamentary elections, people in Iraq itself will vote on Sunday. The northern city of Kirkuk is ground zero for a potential conflict following the planned US withdrawal: the struggle between Arabs and Kurds over a large part of the country’s north. In his second story from Kirkuk, reporter Ben Gilbert looks at the role Kirkuk plays in the Iraq vote. Download MP3 (Photo: Ben Gilbert)
Richard Holbrooke on the fight against the Taliban
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For years Pakistan’s northwest has been plagued by Islamist violence fueled by anger over the war in Afghanistan and Islamabad’s alliance with Washington. A Pakistani military offensive that began in October against the Pakistani Taliban spurred attacks that killed more than 600 people. Marco Werman talks with Washington’s special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, about US policy in the region. Download MP3(Photo: Martha Stewart/Harvard’s Institute of Politics)
More violence as Iraqi vote begins
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At least 14 people have been killed in Baghdad on the first day of voting in Iraq’s parliamentary elections. On Wednesday, three suicide bombers attacked police and a hospital in Baquba, killing at least 30 people. Reporter Ben Gilbert accompanied an American embasssy election observer team in Kirkuk. Download MP3 (Photo: Ben Gilbert)
Suicide attacks in Iraq ahead of vote
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Suicide attacks in the central Iraqi city of Baquba have killed more than 30 people and injured dozens more. The attacks come just days before parliamentary elections, the third since the US-led invasion in 2003. Marco Werman talks with Sahar Issa, a correspondent for McClatchey Newspapers in Baghdad. Download MP3
Is the Afghan Army ready for prime time?
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Afghan President Hamid Karzai has condemned the bombings in Kabul which killed up to nine Indians, a Frenchman and an Italian as a terrorist attack. The Taliban said they carried out the attacks. The assault comes as NATO and Afghan forces continue ‘Operation Moshtarak’ to combat the Taliban in the south of the country. Reporter Ben Gilbert looks at the battle readiness of the Afghan troops. Download MP3 (Photo: Ben Gilbert) Afghanistan’s “radio war”
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The United States government is mounting a counter-propaganda offensive in Afghanistan to combat the Taliban’s media successes. Journalist Douglas Wissing reports on the “radio war” raging in eastern Afghanistan. Download MP3 (Photo:Douglas Wissing)
Behind Taliban lines
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Last fall, veteran Afghan journalist Najibullah Quraishi put out word that he would like to interview one of the new Taliban commanders leading a growing insurgency in the country’s northern provinces. His trip is documented in the edition of Frontline airing tonight on PBS. The reporter is Najibullah Quraishi, Marco Werman talks with him. Download MP3 (Photo: courtesy of Frontline) NATO causes more civilian deaths in Afghanistan
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At least 27 civilians died in a NATO air strike in southern Afghanistan, the Afghan cabinet says. NATO said it hit a suspected insurgent convoy, but ground forces later found “a number of individuals killed and wounded”, including women and children. Civilian deaths in strikes have caused widespread resentment in Afghanistan. Matthew Bell reports. Download MP3 (Photo: POOL/AFP/Getty Images)
Taliban commander “seized in Pakistan”
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A man described as the top Afghan Taliban military commander and named as Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar has been captured in Pakistan, US officials say. The government has yet to confirm the arrest; the Taliban have denied it. Pakistani authorities have beefed up security at the Afghan border (AP Photo: Shah Khalid) after NATO launched Operation Moshtarak against the Taliban in Afghanistan. Jason Margolis has more. Download MP3
Who is Mullah Baradar?
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Ron Moreau is South East Asia correspondent for Newsweek magazine. He profiled Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar last summer and managed to communicate with him through emails. Katy Clark talks with Moreau, who is in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad. Download MP3
Taliban ‘forced from strongholds’
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US Marines are making steady progress in one of the biggest NATO offensives in Afghanistan since the war began in 2001, but areas infested with roadside bombs are bogging them down, a spokesman said on Monday. On day three of Operation Moshtarak, senior Afghan officers said areas around Marjah and Nad Ali were being cleared of insurgents. The campaign aims to bring the areas back under Afghan government control. Anchor Katy Clark speaks with Rod Norland of the New York Times in Kabul. Download MP3 (Photo:Patrick Baz/AFP/Getty Images)On IED patrol in Afghanistan
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Download MP3Improvised Explosive Devices, or IED’s are now responsible for 70 % of the US troop fatalities in Afghanistan. One way the US led coalition is trying to combat them is by finding the bombs before they blow up. In part two of our series on IEDs, reporter Ben Gilbert is embedded with Task Force Thor in southern Afghanistan.
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