AFP / January 6, 2011

Pakistan and a visiting delegation of Afghan officials charged with trying to broker peace with the Taliban have agreed to hold a peace "jirga" between the two countries, Islamabad said on Thursday.

A spokesman for Pakistan's foreign ministry said the decision was made during a visit to the capital by two dozen members of Kabul's High Committee for Peace, led by its chairman, former Afghan premier Burhanuddin Rabbani.

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McClatchy / January 06, 2011

Under a new anti-corruption strategy for Afghanistan, the U.S. government won't aggressively pursue top Afghan officials suspected of malfeasance, conceding that "limited judicial capacity and political interference" from President Hamid Karzai's government make success in prosecuting them unlikely.

Instead, the document, obtained by McClatchy, puts a priority on fighting corruption at the local level and strengthening Afghan institutions to deal with it, through an array of new and existing initiatives. Whether that approach will make a difference remains unclear.

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The Christian Science Monitor / January 5, 2011

As Pakistan deals with the fallout from Tuesday's assassination of Punjab Governor Salman Taseer, former Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani met Wednesday with Pakistan's military chief to help nudge the Taliban to the negotiating table.

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Scotsman / January 05, 2011

The Taleban commander who has agreed a ceasefire in Sangin has claimed he was motivated by compassion.

But the insurgency leader also warned his men will take up arms if the Americans break the terms of their landmark deal.

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The Washington Post / January 5, 2011

Nestled amid Afghanistan's southwestern foothills, the lush pomegranate orchards and dense poppy groves of Sangin have seen more combat fatalities than any other district in the country.

Relentless insurgent ambushes and roadside bombings in the district claimed the lives of more than 100 British troops from 2006 to 2010. The U.S. Marines have lost 29 men there since they took charge last summer, and the limbs of dozens more have been blown off. Top commanders had all but given up hope that the district could be salvaged.

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Radio Free Europe / By Charles Recknagel / January 04, 2011

The Afghan Peace Council is holding talks in Islamabad with Pakistani officials in an effort to build regional support for reconciliation talks with the Taliban.

The 15-member delegation represents the first large-scale contact between the council and Islamabad since the group was formed following last year's peace jirga in Kabul. The Afghan High Peace Council is tasked with exploring prospects for talks with the Taliban.

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United State Institute of Peace (USIP) / By Patricia Gossman / January 2011

The Afghan public, along with the international community, appears increasingly supportive of opening negotiations with the Taliban to end the war. The Karzai administration also supports this, as reflected by the June 2010 Peace Jirga held in Kabul and the 70-member High Peace Council that was formed thereafter.

In spite of the talks, no one in Washington or Kabul has clarified what reconciliation means in practice, particularly with respect to accountability for abuses that occurred during the rule of the Taliban as well as those that occurred when rival factions fought with each other before the Taliban came to power.

On November 10, 2010 representatives from Afghan and international NGOs, as well as the U.N., gathered for a one-day Conference on Peace, Reconciliation, and Justice in Kabul to revitalize public discussion on peace and reconciliation among the government of Afghanistan, the international community, and Afghan civil society.

The discussions revealed a troubling disconnect between the High Peace Council and Afghan civil society representatives who strongly criticized the Council’s inclusion of former militia leaders among its members, the lack of transparency in its activities, and the lack of clarity in its objectives.

These criticisms indicate that for a peace process to have broad, popular support, the Afghan government and the international community must make greater efforts to engage local leaders in a dialogue and account for the interests of communities and interest groups that are not represented in the High Peace Council.

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The Reuters / By Sayed Salahuddin/ December 27, 2010

(- A new court will be set up in Afghanistan to specifically hear fraud complaints from September's parliamentary election before the assembly can be formed, a senior official said on Monday.

The last of the results from the September 18 vote were released on December 1 and President Hamid Karzai's office had promised a new parliament would be formed on January 20 -- more than a month after disgruntled lawmakers demanded a new assembly be formed.

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The wall Street Journal/  By YAROSLAV TROFIMOV / December 26, 2010

Internal United Nations maps show a marked deterioration of the security situation in Afghanistan during this year's fighting season, countering the Obama administration's optimistic assessments of military progress since the surge of additional American forces began a year ago.

The Wall Street Journal was able to view two confidential "residual risk accessibility" maps, one compiled by the U.N. at the annual fighting season's start in March 2010 and another at its tail end in October. The maps, used by U.N. personnel to gauge the dangers of travel and running programs, divide the country's districts into four categories: very high risk, high risk, medium risk and low risk.

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Bloomberg / By Bill Varner / Dec 23, 2010

Taliban insurgents will attempt “spectacular attacks” on U.S. and allied military forces in Afghanistan in the coming months, the top United Nations envoy to the war-torn central Asian nation said.

“We are detecting from the anti-government elements an attempt to show on their side some spectacular attacks,” Staffan de Mistura, head of the UN mission to Afghanistan, told reporters yesterday after briefing the Security Council.

. There is likely to be “an intense security environment in the next few months. In other words, our assessment is that before it gets better, it may get worse.”

U.S., Afghan and allied forces are trying to degrade the Taliban militia in its southern Afghanistan stronghold while building up the central government’s ability to secure the country. The conflict began in 2001 when the U.S. toppled the Taliban regime that harbored the al-Qaeda terrorist group responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks in the U.S.

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