Updated: Nov. 23, 2010
THE LATEST:
Following months of secret talks between Afghan and Taliban leaders to end the war, a participant believed to be Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Mansour, one of the most senior commanders in the Taliban movement, was unmasked as an impostor in November. The high-level discussions conducted with the assistance ofNATOappeared to have achieved little.
The Obama administration is increasingly emphasizing the idea that the United States will have forces in Afghanistan until at least the end of 2014, a change in tone aimed at persuading the Afghans and the Taliban that there will be no significant American troop withdrawals in the summer of 2011. The message shift is effectively a victory for the military, which has long said the July 2011 deadline undermined its mission by making Afghans reluctant to work with troops perceived to be leaving shortly.
In October 2010, new details emerged about talks between that Afghan government and the Taliban that could possibly lead to a settlement of the nine-year conflict. The talks involve extensive, face-to-face discussions with Taliban commanders from the highest levels of the group’s leadership, who have secretly leaving their sanctuaries in Pakistan with the help of NATO troops. Part of the overall American strategy is to wear down the Taliban with ground offensives, in the hope that they will become more receptive to a deal.
Election officials announced that more than 20 percent of the ballotscast in the Sept. 18, 2010 parliamentary elections were being thrown out for fraud. In all, 1.3 million votes were rejected. The voting itself was so tainted — by ballot-box stuffing and armed intimidation of voters, among other tactics — that many candidates are appealing the vote totals to a second electoral body, and in some cases a political solution may have to be found to deal with the inequities.
OVERVIEW
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country north and west of Pakistan and east of Iran. Its strategic location has long granted it a pivotal role in the region, while its terrain and population have stymied would-be conquerors for centuries. The country's population is 34 million. Its capital is Kabul.
The United States has been militarily involved in Afghanistan since 2001, when it led an invasion after the Sept. 11 attacks by Al Qaeda. The group had been given safe haven in the country by theTaliban, the extremist Islamic group that had seized control in 1996 after years of civil war. The 2001 invasion succeeded in dislodging Al Qaeda and removing the Taliban from power, but not in eradicating either group. Fueled by profits from the opium trade and dissatisfaction with the weak and often corrupt new Afghan government, the Taliban has made a steady comeback, particularly in the Pashtun regions of the south and east where the group originated.
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