War & Conflict Archive

DENPASAR, Indonesia — The U.S. ambassador to the Philippines has broken her silence and called on Manila to end extrajudicial killings. On Feb. 27, U.S. ambassador Kristie Kenney said that human rights are critical to every democratic country and asked President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to do all she can to stop the murderous spree. “Let’s beef up the human rights in the Armed Forces of the Philippines and make every effort to investigate, prosecute those responsible, [and] exonerate the innocent,” she said when pressed by reporters. Ambassador Kenney did not say whether the United States will be involved in the […]

The mosque’s golden dome gleamed like a fallen sun, burning out the mud-colored city of Samarra with its broken shops and acres of cinderblock poverty. Two slender minarets framed the dome in regal style and a grid of delicate scaffolding wound around it, suggesting repairs planned and then stalled, probably because of the war. From the neighborhoods beyond, streams of black smoke bled into the winter sky above satellite dishes and slack electric wires. I watched the dome through the battered back window of a U.S. medevac helicopter as it descended to retrieve wounded soldiers at a makeshift landing zone. […]

A string of sectarian attacks and arrests over the last month demonstrate Pakistan’s continuing battle to eradicate Sunni-Shiite violence is far from over, despite Pakistani authorities’ repeated calls for unity and public actions against militant groups over the last six years. Observers worry that Sunni-Shiite violence across Iraq is feeding into Pakistan’s decades-long sectarian conflict, threatening the South Asian nation’s already-troubled efforts to contain militant groups. Homegrown violence only adds to Pakistan’s already significant worries over continued conflict in neighboring Afghanistan, persistent Taliban and al-Qaida presence in Pakistan, and widespread discontent with President Pervez Musharraf’s rule. “Each attack, small or […]

The loss in Iraq of seven U.S. helicopters in the past month has been the cause of much concern in the Department of Defense, and rightly so. The military says seven helicopters have been shot down since Jan. 20, a number that exceeds the total for 2006. The recent spike in successful attacks indicates another evolution in insurgent tactics. Insurgents in Iraq follow the classic pattern of innovation cycles. They identify a need, come up with a new idea to meet it, develop this idea into a product, and introduce it into the field. Thus, the insurgents have recognized the […]

Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank reacted with joy at news that the two main Palestinian factions at long last reached an agreement last week during meetings in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. The details of the agreement between Hamas and Fatah, however, indicate that this deal represents a defeat for many of the key players in the Middle East. The crowded side where the losers from this agreement now stand includes Palestinian moderates, Washington, Israel, the European Union, and — confusing the situation — Iran. Besides Hamas, the winners’ side includes Saudi Arabia, the sponsor of the Mecca talks, which […]

KABUL, Afghanistan — The broken elevator at the Ministry of the Economy was not unexpected. A rolling blackout the night before had hit my downtown hotel, where taps ran dry depending on the time of day. But the blunt honesty of Minister Mohammad Jalil Shams had a sobering effect on an otherwise pleasant day in Kabul: Taliban insurgents and narcotics were this year’s bumper crops, he said, and if all goes well it will take at least a decade or two to win back public confidence eroded by a corrupt government that has failed to make good on promises of […]

BOGOTÁ, Colombia — For years, paramilitary death squads and guerrillas waged a campaign of terror and violence against the indigenous Kankuamo people in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountains of northeastern Colombia. Their goal was to seize coca plantations, control narcotrafficking routes and profit from large infrastructure projects. In Kankuamo areas, the paramilitaries would gather the people together to watch as they brutally killed someone, or tossed their victims in the road to be run over by cars. Now, however, many of those and other paramilitary leaders are in jail, facing harsh penalties and potentially large payments that are […]

When Joe Mason’s 10-year-old daughter saw electricity for the first time in her life, she danced. The years of war, 1989 to 2003, ruined the public power supply in this capital. Liberians with means relied on generators; those without money, however, lived in the dark. Given her father earns $90 a month as a hotel clerk, Mason’s daughter could not have known what electricity was until President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf turned it on in July 2006, illuminating the lamps on Monrovia’s major streets. “A new day,” Mason said. But more than six months later, the electricity that powers those lights […]

Despite flat oil exports and a struggling economy, Iraq has embarked on a comprehensive program to re-arm its embattled security forces. The country is buying American patrol planes, Italian naval vessels, Russian helicopters and armored vehicles co-produced by American and British firms. The new equipment is utilitarian stuff — optimized for patrols in and over Iraq’s teeming cities and on its smuggler-infested waters rather than for attacks on external foes — and reflects the complete inward focus of Iraq’s military. But the purchases do little to solve the forces’ nearly complete lack of logistics capability. In early January, working through […]