The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) announced April 26 that a senior al-Qaeda [2] leader, NATO's second most wanted fighter in the country, had been killed in an air-strike in Kunar province 12 days earlier. Abu Hafs al-Najdi AKA Abdul Ghani, a Saudi national, was reportedly killed in Dangam district as he met other senior insurgents and al-Qaeda members. (AlJazeera [3], April 26) The news came a day after Taliban militants managed to free some 500 of their fellow insurgents from a Kandahar prison thanks to a 1,000-foot-long tunnel the group had dug during the past five months. At least 60 of the escapees have since been recaptured. (AFP [4], April 27; Slate [5], April 25)
NATO supplies through Pakistan were resumed April 25 as the Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) lifted road-blocks launched in protest of drone attacks [6]. Thousands of vehicles carrying oil, food and other supplies for NATO forces were stopped on their way due to the sit-in in Peshawar, the provincial capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly North West Frontier Province). PTI chairman Imran Khan warned that the sit-in would be resumed if drone strikes did not stop within 30 days. (INP [7], April 26)
On April 26, two buses full of Pakistani navy troops were blown up at Mauripur. outside Karachi, killing four, including a woman doctor and a junior officer. At least 56 others sustained injuries. (The News [8], Pakistan, April 27)
See our last post on Afghanistan [9], Pakistan [10] and the politics of drones [11].
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