The UN High Commissioner for Refugees reports that fighting between the Pakistani military and militants in the autonomous tribal districts on the Afghan border has driven 20,000 to flee as refugees into Afghanistan. The exodus from the Bajaur tribal agency into Afghanistan's Kunar province echoes the earlier mass exodus across the border—but in the opposite direction. After the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, an estimated five million Afghans fled to neighboring countries, chiefly Pakistan. The UNHCR and aid agencies are rushing emergency supplies to the Kunar refugees. (NYT [2], Sept. 29)
Meanwhile, an Afghan police officer opened fire on US troops in a police station south of Kabul Sept. 28, killing one of the soldiers. The US forces fired back, killing the police officer. A NATO statement said a joint NATO-Afghan patrol in Paktia province, which had escaped without injury from a roadside bomb and small-arms fire, arrested seven civilians who tested positive for explosives residue. The patrol took the suspects to the police station, where NATO said "an altercation" ensued. (NYT [3], Sept. 30)
See our last posts on Pakistan [4] and the Afghanistan [5].
