Double bombing in Logar province injures 18 . A bomb went off near the Red Crescent office in Pul-e-Alam, followed by a second explosion when bystanders and security forces came to assist the victims. Most casualties are said to be civilians. (Note: The story above also mentions this incident but the account appears to be less accurate and complete.)
Taliban attack a police outpost in Shahwali Kot, Kandahar province. The attack is repelled with three attackers said to be killed.
Mayor of Shindand, Herat, is killed in a drive-by shooting on Friday. Apparently it took some time for the news to get out. (BTW Bakhtar News Agency, the source of this story, also gives the casualty total in Pul-e-Alam as 20.)
Alex Spillius reviews "Little America" by Rajiv Chandrasekaran This account of the U.S. war in Afghanistan also tells the story of a failed U.S. development project in Helmand in the '50s. Writes Spillius:
Chandrasekaran contends that haste, ineptitude, poor co-ordination and political considerations largely squandered an opportunity created by the Obama troop “surge” to provide sustainable aid and force elements of the Taliban to talk. . . . Washington’s ambitions in Afghanistan have been scaled down from building a reliable, democratic friend to leaving behind a scarcely credible state barely capable of withstanding the Taliban onslaught expected after 2014. After nearly 11 years, that is sadly not saying much.
Kabul Journalist Rohool Amin blames corrupt leadership for Afghanistan's civil war, repeated foreign invasions, and dependency.