Word: talibans
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...mother's arms, inside a tent on the edge of a field, is Pakistan's youngest refugee. Aman, a baby girl, was born just days after her parents fled last month's fighting in the Buner valley. As the Pakistani military moved in to push back against Taliban fighters edging closer to the capital, the family traveled in the opposite direction, across the mountains that form a backdrop to the camp in which they now live. They are among an estimated 2.4 million Pakistanis who have been displaced, marking a refugee crisis on a scale comparable to the mass flight...
...Last month, after the Taliban rampaged through Khan's village of Kalpani, his neighbors formed a militia to resist the encroachment. But the insurgents' advance was halted only by the arrival of gunship helicopters, artillery brigades and fighter jets. As the military's thunderous assault grew closer, Khan and his wife fled, hiding for hours in the nearby forest. When daylight broke, they scaled the hills and made their way to Shewa Adda, a village near the town of Swabi. "My daughter was born four days after we arrived," says Khan. The camp, now home to 500 families like...
...very lucrative quantities of tobacco. The family also operates power projects and recently acquired the Pakistan franchise for Gloria Jean's, a café chain. It owns a tire factory in Swat's main town of Mingora, but like much else in the valley, it was seized by the Taliban. In recent years, Liaqat Tarakai has slowly pushed the family into the political arena. "We have no need of government help," he proudly declares. "We are self-sufficient." (See pictures of Pakistan beneath the surface...
...Taliban is still to blame in most instances, using misinformation and human shields to intentionally draw civilian casualties and exploit the backlash to their advantage. Brigadier General Richard Blanchette, the coalition spokesman, says the stricter protocols have come into force down the chain of command to ensure operational decisions are fully vetted, with additional confirmation on the ground before air power is deployed. This means "taking more time" if necessary, he explains, or, if civilians are at risk, "just cancel it." While roadside incidents are trickier since they involve split-second judgment, there is a top-down emphasis on restraint...
Contacted by phone, Aref Shaheem, Benafsha's father, angrily said that coalition forces were "only killing people." They claim to be in the country to protect Afghans, he says, but they continue to take innocent lives. "They can't be trusted." As a result, he argues, the Taliban in his area only grows stronger. He says it was little consolation to learn the soldiers responsible for his daughter's death were punished, as investigators say they were told. (The coalition would not confirm this.) She is gone, he says, and so is any vestige of faith he had left...