At least 45 people were killed in a missile strike by a US drone aircraft in Pakistan's South Waziristan region, officials there said June 23. Those killed had been attending a funeral for others killed in a US drone strike earlier in the day. The region is a stronghold of Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud.

Missiles fired from a presumed US drone hit a compound in Ghurlama village, near Wana, in the Birmal subdivision of Pakistan's South Waziristan district June 18, killing 11 suspected militants. The compound was said to be owned by a local Taliban commander called Malang. Hailing from Gangikhel tribe, Malang is said to be a close associate of Commander Maulvi Nazir. This was the second drone attack in South Waziristan over the past week. On June 14, a missile hit a car in Laddha subdivision inhabited mostly by the Mehsuds, killing three people. (Dawn, Pakistan, June 18)

Militants bombed two mosques in in Pakistan June 12, killing at least eight, including a cleric who was an outspoken critic of the Taliban. In Lahore, a suicide bomber detonated his payload inside the religious complex run by Sarfraz Ahmed Naeemi, a leading Sunni cleric who was vocal in his opposition to suicide attacks and other Taliban tactics. The attack seemed aimed specifically at Naeemi, whose quarters near the entrance of the mosque were completely destroyed. At least four others were killed in the attack. Another mosque bombing in Nowshera, northwest of Islamabad, killed at least three and injured more than 20.

Pakistan's army said June 5 it has arrested senior associates of the radical Islamist cleric Sufi Mohammad, in the country's northwest. Six men, including Sufi Mohammad's deputy Maulana Mohammed Alim, spokesman Ameer Izzat Khan, and aide Syed Wahab were detained, officials said. Mohammad is the father-in-law of Maulana Fazlullah, Taliban leader in the Swat valley where the army is battling militants.

The United Kingdom's Defense Ministry admitted this week that their pilots in Afghanistan are firing an increasing number of "enhanced blast" thermobaric weapons, designed to kill everyone in buildings they strike. Since the start of the year, more than 20 of the US-designed missiles, which have what is officially described as a "blast fragmentation warhead," have been fired by pilots of British Apache helicopters. A total of 20 were also fired last year.

The 24-hour curfew in Swat Valley, North West Frontier Province, which started on May 18, has led to severe shortages of food, water and medicines, creating a humanitarian crisis, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW). "People trapped in the Swat conflict zone face a humanitarian catastrophe unless the Pakistani military immediately lifts a curfew that has been in place continuously for the last week," Brad Adams, HRW's Asia director, said in a statement.

From The Independent, May 16, links added:

A single American Special Forces group was behind at least three of Afghanistan's worst civilian casualty incidents, The Independent has learnt, raising fundamental questions about their ongoing role in the conflict.

Apparent US missile strikes killed four militants in a Pakistani tribal area near the Afghan border May 16. AFP said the compound was located in Khaisur village, 30 kilometers east of Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan tribal region. AP put the attack in Mir Ali village. Security officials said they are digging through the rubble of destroyed houses for more victims. (AFP, AP, May 16)