Afghanistan’s most senior policewoman, Lt. Col. Malalai Kakar, head of Kandahar’s department of crimes against women, was shot dead by Taliban insurgents in Kandahar city on September 27. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack. Seven people, including 3 policemen died after a suicide bomber on a motorcycle attacked two border police vehicles in the main bazaar in Spinbaldak, on the Pakistan border, about 80 miles southeast of Kandahar1.

Suspected Taliban insurgents on September 26 freed 118 of about 150 Afghan labourers who were abducted in the previous week in the southwestern province of Farah while traveling in three buses to the city of Herat2.

US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte stated that US authorities were conducting a review of the Shindand operation of August 22, which resulted in civilian casualties. The incident had raised a lot of criticism on NATO’s military operations3.

• 1. “Taliban Claim Responsibility in Killing of Key Female Afghan Officer,” The New York Times, September 28, 2008, at http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/29/world/asia/29afghan.html
• 2. “In Afghanistan, 118 Hostages are Released by Insurgents,” The New York Times, September 26, 2008, at http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/27/world/asia/27afghan.html
• 3. “US Conducting Review of Shindand Incident,” Pajhwok Afghan News, September 26, 2008, at http://www.pajhwok.com/viewstory.asp?lng=eng&id=62729