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499 Killed Since 2025 in Afghanistan-Pakistan Clashes
Fighting between Pakistani forces and Afghanistan's de facto security forces killed 499 civilians and wounded 1,216 inside Afghanistan between October 1, 2025, and June 30, 2026, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said in a report published July 28.Between April and June alone, UNAMA documented 57 civilians killed and 342 wounded — 40 women and 112 children among them. It attributed every cross-border civilian casualty recorded in the quarter to Pakistani security forces, with airstrikes and ground engagement the leading causes.The heaviest single toll came on June 28, when two successive Pakistani airstrikes struck a residential building in Paktia province. The second strike hit residents who had gathered to search the rubble for survivors of the first. UNAMA recorded 22 dead, five of them children, and at least 185 wounded in the incident. Fiona Frazer, UNAMA's director of human rights, said international humanitarian law affords special protection to…
Militants Kill 11 Police in Pakistan Drone Ambush
Eleven police officers were killed in northwest Pakistan late Wednesday after militants struck the Khazina Banda police post in Hangu district, near the Afghan border, then ambushed reinforcements sent to the area.Militants first hit the post with improvised explosives attached to quadcopters, according to a police statement cited by Al Jazeera. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Inspector General Zulfiqar Hameed said the post was also attacked with heavy weapons.Reinforcements dispatched afterward were ambushed en route, severely damaging the lead armored personnel carrier, according to the Express Tribune. Among those killed was DSP Diyar Khan, who was leading the responding force.More than two dozen officers were wounded, while security forces killed 15 attackers. No group had claimed responsibility as of Thursday. The Pakistani Taliban, or Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, has carried out repeated attacks against security forces in the region and claimed a suicide bombing in nearby Tank days earlier, but responsibility for the Hangu assault…
Lebanon’s Army Accuses Israel of Blocking Pullout
The pilot-zone plan Israel and Lebanon agreed to in late June covers just three villages, Froun, Srifa, and Zawtar al-Gharbieh, with no fixed exit timetable for Israeli forces, and Trump declined to commit to one during his July 21 meeting with President Joseph Aoun, according to PBS News. Two of the three villages already sit under Lebanese army control, while Israeli troops remain in part of Zawtar al-Gharbieh.Chatham House fellow Bilal Saab has called the resulting arrangement "only a ceasefire in name," per NBC News, since Israeli clearing operations have continued without a binding deadline to stop.Medical responders have paid a cost. Lebanon's Public Health Ministry said 42 medical workers have been killed since fighting resumed in March, including two paramedics whose ambulance was struck this month while responding to an earlier strike in Nabatieh al-Fawqa, calling the pattern "deliberate obstruction of rescue operations," per LBC Group.Aoun, the first Lebanese…
Billions From Venezuelan Oil Remain Unaccounted For
The Trump administration has collected an estimated $13 billion from Venezuelan oil exports since assuming control of the country's oil sales in January, according to a Financial Times investigation.Public records account for only about $300 million reaching Caracas.The first cargoes, sold to traders Vitol and Trafigura at a discount, were routed through a Qatar-based account rather than the U.S. Treasury, avoiding standard congressional accounting procedures until lawmakers sought greater disclosure.President Donald Trump has said the United States is "making a lot of money" from the arrangement. At the same time, Executive Order 14373 designates the proceeds as Venezuela's sovereign property held in U.S. custody. The State Department has told Congress that billions of dollars have been returned to Venezuela under strict oversight, but it has not published a comprehensive accounting of those transfers.The discrepancy has fueled questions over the management of one of the world's largest state-controlled oil revenue streams.…
Rubio Meets Haftar as Libya Deal Advances
Secretary of State Marco Rubio met Saddam Haftar, deputy commander of the Libyan National Army, at the State Department on June 29, signaling that Washington's Libya power-sharing push is advancing without a public final agreement. The State Department said the two discussed ongoing Libyan-led efforts to unify the country's military, economic, and political institutions and possible avenues for cooperation to advance unity and peace in Libya. Foreign Policy reported that under the framework being discussed, Saddam Haftar would head Libya's Presidency Council, which carries the title of commander in chief, while the Dbeibah family would retain the prime minister's office. The outlet noted that neither family has a history of ceding power once it holds it, and that the Presidency Council post could give Haftar a base to expand into western Libya. Massad Boulos, Trump's senior adviser for Arab and African affairs, has denied the deal is simply a family…
Nigeria Faces Fresh Massacres as U.S. Steps Back
At least 27 people were reported killed in weekend attacks across Nigeria's Benue and Plateau states, in the country's Middle Belt, where farmer-herder conflict and banditry drive much of the violence. Vanguard reported that 18 died in two attacks in Benue's Otukpo area, 16 of them in Otukpo-Nobi early Sunday. Nigerian police put the Otukpo toll at eight, and Amnesty International at least 10, according to AP. In Plateau State, nine members of one family, including a two-month-old baby, were reportedly killed in an attack on the Kum and Wereng-Camp communities.The killings came days after the United States confirmed it had withdrawn most of the troops it deployed to Nigeria this year — but from a different war. Those forces operated in the north-east against Islamic State militants around the Lake Chad Basin, with no mandate over the Middle Belt, Reuters reported. Intelligence cooperation with Abuja continues.The drawdown followed months…
