Last Look: Afghanistan

A deadly suicide blast in southern Afghanistan has killed at least 12 people. The attack took place in a crowded bazaar, which is why casualties were unusually high. According to some reports, the bomber was targeting a convoy of foreign troops. However, all 12 killed were civilians, while only 2 troops were lightly wounded. The Taliban still holds significant territory in the southern fringes of Afghanistan, which border with parts of Pakistan, and these types of attacks are becoming more frequent in the area. In response, the US is sending about 8,000 marines to the region to almost double the size of the mainly British garrison.

Meanwhile, US efforts against the militants were set back as Afghan President Hamid Karzai urged the cessation of all airstrikes, due to the large amount of unintentional civilian casualties which are becoming extremely unpopular. Karzai made the announcement on CNN as he visited Washington to meet with US President Obama and Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari. Karzai went on to say that the recent attacks that killed over 100 civilians were completely the US's fault, and not the Taliban, as some in the military claimed. He also said that the airstrikes were not an effective way to battle terrorists, and that the strategy was not working. US officials, including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that the US would work hard to avoid such "loss of innocent life".

Irregardless, another airstrike made after these comments killed an unknown amount of people in western Afghanistan, in the province of Farah. The US claims that the Taliban ushered people into houses as they were being attacked, in order to maximize civilian casualties and dishearten the US-led coalition. While the US commits more troops to Afghanistan in order to put down the flare up of violence, neighboring Pakistan is slowly being dragged into a civil war...