Government of Afghanistan

Pakistan is to end its moratorium on the death penalty in terror-related cases, the prime minister's office announced Dec. 17, a day after Taliban militants killed 141 people in an attack on a school.
     
The assault on the army-run school in the northwestern city of Peshawar, the deadliest terror attack in Pakistan's history, has triggered widespread revulsion.
      

A Taliban assault on an army-run school in the Pakistani city of Peshawar on Tuesday has left at least 126 people dead, most of them children, officials say.

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At least 130 people, most of them children, were killed on Tuesday after Taliban gunmen broke into a school in the Pakistani city of Peshawar and opened fire, witnesses said, in the bloodiest massacre the country has seen for years.
   

The Pakistani Taliban declared allegiance to Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL)

The Pakistani Taliban declared allegiance to Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL)

A major Taliban offensive in eastern Afghanistan over the past week has left up to 100 civilians and security personnel dead, 12 of them beheaded, officials said

A Taliban suicide bomber rammed an explosives-laden car into a NATO convoy near the US embassy in Kabul on Tuesday, killing three soldiers and wounding at least 13 Afghan civilians in a massive blast.

By Nikos Xydakis

The conquest of Mosul by Sunni Islamist militants this week and the seizure of the Kirkuk oil hub by Kurdish forces show that Iraq is heading toward a breakup and that the borders of the Middle East country will sooner or later be redrawn. However, before such a breakup becomes reality, we may see the broader region dragged into the fighting.