Experts from the U.S. Institute of Peace provide the latest analysis and perspective on the world’s critical hot spots, U.S. and global security and issues involved in violent conflict, based on the Institute’s work on the ground and with key individuals, governments and organizations. They give interviews and background briefings to journalists and write for news outlets around the world.
More than 50 people were killed and many others injured in bomb attacks in two different Pakistan provinces, officials have said. In the southwestern province of Balochistan, a powerful bomb exploded on Friday near a mosque in Mastung city, where people were...
A suspected suicide bomb blast during a procession to commemorate the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad has left more than 50 people dead and many more wounded in Pakistan’s Balochistan Province. It was not the only attack on Friday. Host Carol Hills speaks with Asfandyar Mir, a senior expert at the United States Institute of Peace, about the growing instability in Pakistan caused by...
As a child studying in a madrasa in Afghanistan, Mohammad Khalid Tahir dreamed of waging jihad. By the time he was a teenager, he had joined the Taliban and celebrated when they seized power from the U.S.-backed government two years ago. But the high from that victory did not last. Reassigned...
The deadly July suicide bombing at a political rally in Pakistan’s northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa highlights a troublesome trend of violence in the region. The bombing on Sunday targeted those attending a rally for the religious political party Jamiat Uleme-e-Islam-Fazal (JUIF) in the...
NPR's Sacha Pfeiffer talks to security and counter-terrorism Asfandyar Mir about how instability in the Taliban's Afghanistan has spilled into Pakistan, after a suicide bombing that killed dozens...
When a suicide bombing rocked a political gathering in northwest Pakistan over the weekend, suspicion immediately fell upon the Pakistani Taliban group, whose growing footprint and mounting attacks have alarmed security officials in the country. But on Monday, the smaller Islamic State group known...
The Islamic State affiliate in South Asia claimed responsibility on Monday for a suicide bombing in northwest Pakistan that killed dozens of people and injured about 200 more, in the latest bloody sign of the deteriorating security situation in the country. The death toll from the explosion on Sunday...
An explosion at a political rally on Sunday in northwest Pakistan killed at least 43 people and wounded 200 more, officials said, the latest sign of the deteriorating security situation in the country, where some militant groups have become more active over the past two years since finding a haven in neighboring...
U.S. weapons seized by the Taliban following the August 2021 withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan continue to show up outside the country. Last month, an Israeli commander speaking on condition of...
The U.S. military retreated from Afghanistan two years ago, leaving behind weapons that are now turning up in far-flung trouble spots where terrorists are fighting and killing America’s allies. In markets that have sprung up across the southern and eastern badlands, where the hottest fighting of the war took...