Inmates resisting the inspection of their cells clashed with guards searching for weapons and mobile phones at Afghanistan's overcrowded Pul-i-Charki prison in Kabul Dec. 4. Eight prisoners were killed and 13 injured. The prisoners also burned mattresses, and gunfire was heard during the rioting that wasn't quelled until the next day. The two cellblocks affected by the uprising were at double capacity. (NYT, Dec. 6)

Pakistani Taliban militants torched supplies destined for NATO forces in Afghanistan for a second day running Dec. 8, raiding a container terminal on the outskirts of Peshawar—just over a mile from the previous day's attack, in which gunmen torched more than 100 trucks. About 50 containers were destroyed in the new raid. "The militants came just past midnight, firing in the air, sprinkled petrol on containers and then set them on fire," a security guard at the terminal told Reuters. "They told us they would not harm us, but they asked us not to work for the Americans."

Here's a case study in what Iraq's besieged secular left calls the "two poles of terrorism." From the Washington Post, Dec. 6:

WASHINGTON — Five Blackwater Worldwide security guards have been charged in a September 2007 shooting that left 17 Iraqi civilians dead and raised questions about the U.S. government's use of security contractors in combat zones, according to two sources familiar with the case.

Iranian students protested Dec. 7 at Tehran University, calling for political freedoms and denouncing President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The protest amid heavy security was called by the radical Office to Consolidate Unity (OCU) to mark National Student Day. The official news agency IRNA, calling the OCU an "illegal splinter group," said protesters caused property damage and clashed with security personnel, adding that "Marxists" were involved. Photos from the student newspaper website (see below) showed hundreds gathered at the university, many carrying pro-democracy banners and some tearing down a metal gate. (AFP, Dec. 8; AP, Reuters, AutNews, Tehran Polytechnic, Dec. 7)

Pakistan's armed forces have moved against a camp used by banned militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, the BBC reports. A correspondent in Muzaffarabad says he was unable to reach the camp because of the cordon, but did see about 14 army vehicles leaving the area. The camp is run by the Islamic charity Jamaat-ud-Dawa, widely seen as a front for Lashkar-e-Taiba, which was banned in 2002. Reports said a number of people—between three and 20—from the charity have been arrested. (BBC News, Dec. 8)

Some 200 Taliban militants destroyed more than 160 Humvees and trucks bound for NATO forces in Afghanistan Dec. 7 in a pre-dawn raid on the terminal where they were parked in Peshawar, Pakistan. The war material was offloaded for transit to Afghanistan at the Pakistani port of Karachi. Meanwhile, the Pentagon reveals that most of the additional US troops arriving in Afghanistan early next year will be deployed near the capital, Kabul—in what the New York Times calls "a measure of how precarious the war effort has become."

India was planning a military strike over the Mumbai attacks, Pakistan's High Commissioner to London Wajid Shamsul Hassan told the BBC, saying New Delhi intended "to teach Pakistan a lesson." The network quoted the official saying, "This is what we were told by our friends that there could possibly be a quick strike at some of the areas they suspect to be the training camps, an air raid or something of that sort." India has made no comment on Hassan's remarks. (Press TV, Dec. 7)

Iraqi security guards opened fire when a riot broke out Dec. 3 among 1,000 Asian migrant workers protesting poor treatment in Baghdad. The men work for Najlaa International Catering Services, a subcontractor to Houston-based KBR. The top US Defense Department contractor in Iraq, KBR is already the target of federal lawsuits over alleged human trafficking and other wrongdoing.