Human Rights Watch (HRW) on May 13 called on the US government to make "fundamental changes to reduce civilian casualties" in Afghanistan after attacks last week reportedly left more than 140 civilians dead. HRW said that a review announced by chief of the US Central Command General David Petraeus must result in "measures that genuinely minimize civilian loss of life." HRW called on the US to heed international laws of war, under which attacks cannot be indiscriminate or cause disproportionate civilian loss.

Among the tens of thousands who have fled their homes in Swat Valley and the adjacent Buner district of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province (NWFP) are about 2,000 Sikhs who have taken refuge in a Sikh shrine in Hasanabdal, a town about 50 kilometers from Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad. According to Gulbeer Singh, head priest at the Sri Punja Sahib shrine, about 207 families from Buner District and 96 from Swat had taken refuge there. The number of Sikh internally displaced persons (IDPs), he said, is roughly 2,000.

The US announced May 11 the replacement of its commander in Afghanistan, Gen. David McKiernan, with Lt.-Gen. Stanley McChrystal, a former chief of Pentagon special operations forces. "Our mission there requires new thinking and new approaches from our military leaders," said Defense Secretary Robert Gates. (AlJazeera, May 11)

A US military contractor who pleaded guilty in February to voluntary manslaughter for the 2008 shooting of an Afghan detainee was sentenced in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia May 8 to five years probation and a $12,500 fine. Don Ayala had been charged with second-degree murder for shooting and killing detainee Abdul Salam in retaliation for Salam's earlier attack on Ayala's fellow contractor Paula Lloyd.

Gen. David McKiernan says the mission in Afghanistan is likely to fail if militants continue to gain power in Pakistan. During a press briefing, the commander of the US forces in Afghanistan said, "Can you get to the right end-state in Afghanistan if you have a deteriorating or failed state in Pakistan? The answer is probably no."

Pakistani security forces backed by warplanes and helicopter gunships launched a new operation in Buner district near the Swat Valley April 28, bombing suspected Taliban targets in Kalil, Shera Turf, and Kandao areas. Fighter aircraft also bombed Mushki Pur, a mountainous area of Mardan district bordering Buner. The strikes were carried out by the paramilitary Frontier Corps in coordination with the army.

The co-educational schools that the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) runs for Afghan refugees in Pakistan are under attack from Pakistan's new Taliban movement. This statement from RAWA was forwarded to us by the Support Association for the Women of Afghanistan (SAWA-Australia), April 21:

Shortly after the Pakistani Taliban won their demand for Islamic law in the Swat Valley in a peace-for-sharia deal, they moved into neighboring Buner district, and won the right to preach in mosques there—which, local reports indicate, means effective political control. Residents in Buner initially fought the incoming Taliban, forming a lashkar or tribal militia. Some 20 militants were killed in the battle, but the lashkar was soon outnumbered as hundreds more Taliban fighters swarmed into the area.