As cafes, restaurants, and performance centers in Kabul came under attack one after another in recent years, the campus of the American University of Afghanistan remained a rare oasis for some of the country’s brightest young men and women. Beyond providing a quality education, the school offered a glimpse of a carefree life away from the unpredictable violence that afflicted the rest of the capital….That sense of freedom, too, was violated Wednesday night. – New York Times
More than 50 people were wounded in the nine-hour assault, most of them students who were drawn to the promise of a world-class education based on an American model that the university offered. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
Despite fierce fighting in Afghanistan's southern Helmand province, the U.S. military says the Taliban is failing to take and hold any significant territory in recent months. – Washington Examiner
U.S. forces are accompanying Afghan special operations forces on about 10 percent of their missions, the spokesman for the U.S. military effort there said Thursday. – The Hill
The news from Afghanistan lately has been grim…Yet top U.S. officials say the 15-year-old mission to stabilize the poor and fractured country is progressing as well as can be expected. – Military Times
As the war against the Taliban grinds on, Afghan women are still largely treated as property and barely a week goes by without news emerging of a woman or girl being stoned to death, burned with gasoline, beaten or tortured by her in-laws, traded to repay a debt, jailed for running away from a violent husband, or sold into marriage as a child. – Associated Press
South Asia
France and India on Thursday each dismissed security concerns raised by the recent publication of documents involving Scorpene-class submarines currently being constructed in Mumbai by a French naval contractor. – Washington Times
The Indian Navy has expressed concern to French authorities over the reported leakage of data pertaining to the Scorpene submarines being built for India. – Defense News
Pakistan's continued support for resurgent militant groups hostile to the United States, coupled with warming U.S. military and business relations with India, is sharply diminishing Islamabad’s strategic importance as an ally to Washington, U.S. military, diplomatic, and intelligence officials and outside experts said. - Reuters
Gunmen in Pakistan killed six soldiers and a provincial government official in an ambush on their convoy in the insurgency plagued southwest province of Baluchistan, a senior official in the region said on Friday. - Reuters