Two suicide car bombs exploded near the home of a tribal leader in the Abu Ghraib district west of Baghdad March 27, killing the sheikh's son and several other people. Sheikh Thahir al-Dari, whose home was targeted, is the head of the al-Zobaie tribe and belongs to a group opposed to al-Qaeda. Salam al-Zobaie, Iraq's deputy prime minister who survived an assassination bid last week, belongs to al-Dari's tribe. (AlJazeera, March 27)

More than 18,000 Afghan refugees in Pakistan have returned home since the UN High Commissioner foor Refugees (UNHCR) started this year's voluntary repatriation to Afghanistan, officials announced March 23. "They have been given a grace period from March 1 to April 15 to repatriate voluntarily with assistance," UNHCR said, adding that Afghans who did not register during the 15-week period and thus do not have Proof of Registration (PoR) cards, will be considered illegal migrants and will be subject to prosecution. UNHCR says there are still some 2.15 million Afghan citizens in Pakistan. (UNHCR press release, March 23)

The March English edition of Le Monde Diplomatique has an in-depth story on the state of the world's oil industry, "Hydrocarbon nationalism: States claim back their energy reserves," which sheds much light on the underlying imperatives for the Iraq adventure. The critical point: Outside of the US and northern Europe, oil production is now generally 60% or more state-owned. Russia was manipulated down to 30-odd percent under Yeltsin, but Putin (by rather draconian means) has boosted it back over 50%. This is one reason Iraq is so crucial: if the US still gets its way somehow, it will be the first significant reversal of this trend. Relevant passages:

NATO warplanes carried out airstrikes in Helmand province March 25, killing 19 militants and bringing the toll from a four-day operation to 99, the Afghan defence ministry said. (AFP, March 26) Fighting in the region continues to claim the lives of civilians. The UN news agency IRIN interviewed residents of a small village in Helmand's Gherishk who said family members had been killed by cross-fire in recent clashes, and that they were considering fleeing to Kandahar, the nearest city. Officials denied the claims. "No civilian has been killed or injured in the Gherishk operation," said Gen. Zahir Azimi, a spokesman for Afghanistan's Ministry of Defense. More than 1,000 civilians were killed or injured in clashes between insurgents and ISAF in Helmand and neighboring provinces in 2006, according to Human Rights Watch, and some 5,000 families have reportedly been displaced in the province since September 2006. (IRIN, March 26)

Pakistani agents recovered three Iranian policemen who were kidnapped by Baluch militants and handed them back to authorities in Iran, while a fourth is believed to have been killed. The four police were abducted Feb. 27 by the Jundallah militant group after a deadly clash in Iran's southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchestan, and taken across the Pakistani border. (AFP, March 26)

The Tamil Tiger rebels launched their first air strike March 26, hitting a Sri Lankan air base near Colombo. They Defense Ministry said three airmen were killed and 16 wounded, but the military's newly-purchased MIG fighter jets were not damaged. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) said the raid, carried out with two planes, was aimed at interrupting the "indiscriminative bombing of the Tamil areas" by the Sri Lankan government. LTTE guerillas attacked the same base in 2001, destroying half of the Sri Lankan fleet. (Asia News, March 26) In India P. Nedumaran, leader of the Tamilar Desiya Iyakkam of Tamil Nadu, said the LTTE air attack has brought "endless joy and happiness to Tamils all over the world." (Asian Tribune) Meanwhile, Sri Lanka's pro-government LankaWeb cites claims on the Counterterrorism Blog that the LTTE sold stolen Norwegian passports to al-Qaeda operatives. Writes Counterterrorism Blog's self-appointed "expert" Aaron Mannes:

US and Iraqi officials are in contact with representatives of some Sunni insurgent groups to build an alliance against al-Qaeda in Iraq, outgoing US ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad announced March 26, saying he is cautiously optimistic that "success is possible." Khalilzad admitted he had flown to Jordan for meetings with representatives of the Islamic Army of Iraq and the 1920 Revolution Brigades. (Reuters, NYT, March 26) In Ramadi, Col. John W. Charlton boasts that a new anti-Qaeda Sunni alliance, the Anbar Salvation Council led by Sheikh Abdul Sattar al-Rishawi, has cut attacks in the city by half in recent months. But the leader of the Association of Muslim Scholars, Sheikh Harith al-Dhari, describes the Anbar Salvation Council as "thieves and bandits." US forces in Anbar report growing gun battles between rival Sunni militias in Ramadi. They used to describe such skirmishes as "red on red" fighting—battles between enemies. Now they call it "red on green." (AP, March 26)

Followers of the People's Front in Defense of the Land (FPDT) from the central Mexican village of San Salvador Atenco marched and blocked the Texcoco-Lecheria federal highway to demand the liberation of 31 of their comrades from Altiplano and Santiaguito prisons in the state of Mexico. The group of campesinos was led by Maria Antonia Trinidad Ramirez, wife of FPDT director Ignacio Del Valle, one of the prisoners at Altiplano. (La Jornada, March 24)