At least seven children were killed in a US air raid against a suspected al-Qaeda hideout in the Zargun Shah district of eastern Afghanistan's Paktika province June 17. The victims are believed to have been students at a madrassa near a mosque at the targeted compound. The Coalition statement expressing regret for the loss of life said residents in the area had confirmed that al-Qaeda fighters were present in the area all day. "This is another example of al-Qaeda using the protective status of a mosque, as well as innocent civilians, to shield themselves," said Major Chris Belcher. The mosque is said to have been slightly damaged in the strike. (AKI, June 18)

At least 35 have been killed in a suicide attack on a police bus in Kabul June 17—the deadliest attack since the Taliban regime fell. Most of the dead were instructors going to work at the city's police academy, but an undetermined number of by-standers were also among the dead. In a separate attack, a roadside bomb tore through a military vehicle in Kandahar province, killing three soldiers with the US-led coalition and an Afghan interpreter. The nationalities of the soliders were not disclosed, but the attack brings to 84 the number of international troops killed in Afghanistan this year. (AP, AFP, June 18) On June 16, a suicide car bomber attacked a convoy of DynCorp contract workers in Kabul, killing at least four civilians. A US soldier opened fire on the crowd that gathered afterward, killing one more civilian and sparking an angry protest. (AP, June 16) On June 15, a suicide attack on a NATO convoy in Uruzgan province killed 10, including five children, four other civilians and a Dutch soldier. Later, a second suicide attack targeted another NATO convoy in Kandahar, wounding five civilians. (VOA, ANC, June 15)

Jonathan "Jack" Idema, the last of three imprisoned US citizens convicted of illegal detention and torture in Afghanistan in 2004, was released June 2, Afghan authorities have confirmed. Idema, a former member of the US Army Special Forces, was arrested by Afghan forces as a vigilante along with US journalist Edward Caraballo and ex-serviceman Brent Bennett in July 2004 after a raid on their house in Kabul revealed eight captive Afghans. Idema said that the Pentagon sanctioned their operations, a claim the US State Department denied. In March, US District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan ordered the State Department and FBI to respond to allegations by Idema that they ordered his torture while in Afghan custody. US government lawyers have asked that the case be dismissed because the Afghan government has granted Idema amnesty. (Jurist, June 13)

One Abdur Raziq contributes June 9 a brief account to the open-posting website Ground Report ("Where You Make the News") of the Taliban crackdown on elements of traditional Pashtun culture which are considered "un-Islamic" in Pakistan's Tribal Areas—Lakhtai dancing boys and "eunuchs." These latter are not necessarily literally castrated, but what we call "trans-gendered" in the West. However, an entry in the Things Asian website informs us that a real eunuch caste known as the hijras survives in India. We have noted before Taliban intolerance of the region's indigenous gay culture and music.

Afghan president Hamid Karzai survived the third assassination attempt on his life on [June 10] when Taliban militants fired rockets at a building in which he was giving a speech [outside Kabul]. [The president is known as the "mayor of Kabul" to his critics, who say his power does not extend much beyond his palace, which hides behind sandbag ramparts, concrete blocks, razor wire and machine-gun nests in the capital.] [Reuters, June 11]

Najib Manalai, an adviser to Afghanistan’s minister of culture and youth affairs, has described the Taliban [in an interview] as a composite of different elements, "hijacked by Pakistani intelligence services and by international terrorist groups." While there exists de facto leadership, its interest is with international terrorism, rather than a national agenda. [EurasiaNet, June 6]

Mansour Dadullah, new Taliban military commander since the death of his brother Mullah Dadullah in combat last month, told AlJazeera in an exclusive interview: "Sheikh Osama bin Laden is alive and active. He's carrying out his duties. The latest proof that he is alive is that he sent me a letter of condolences after the martyrdom of my brother. He advised me to follow my brother's path... Sheikh Osama prefers not to be seen or meet anyone because if he makes himself available to the media maybe he will be facing danger."

Two women journalists, Zakia Zaki and Sanga Amach, have been killed by gunmen in Afghanistan in the past week. Zaki, who was killed in an attack at her home late June 5, ran a private radio station, partially funded by a Western media group, and was headmistress of a school in Parwan province. She was recently warned by some local commanders to shut the station or face death, the head of Afghanistan's Independent Journalist Association said. "She believed in freedom of expression, that's why she was killed," Rahimullah Samander told Reuters. Amach, a news presenter on a private television station in Kabul, was killed at her home on June 1. She had also received threats from unidentified persons. Some arrests have been reported in her case. (Reuters, June 6)