Taliban simply using border crossing

After the United States has spent hundreds of millions of dollars trying to cut off remote mountain trails that Taliban forces use to smuggle weapons and fighters from Pakistan into Afghanistan, the insurgents are simply using official border crossings -- without a second glance from border officials. "More and more we've realized that they are not coming through the passes, they're just coming through the ... gate," said a U.S. government official in Afghanistan who spoke on the condition of anonymity so he could discuss a U.S.-led coalition plan to tighten security at the crossings.

Two suspected suicide bombers attacked a beloved Sufi shrine in Pakistan's largest city Thursday, killing at least eight people, wounding 65 others. The explosions were at the Abdullah Shah Ghazi shrine in Karachi. Pakistani Sufi sites have frequently been the target of Islamist militant groups, whose hardline interpretations of the religion leave no room for the more mystical Sufi practices common in Pakistan.

An airstrike and a raid by ground troops killed eight insurgents, including a senior Taliban leader who spearheaded attacks against Afghan security forces, NATO said Thursday as the war in Afghanistan entered its 10th year. Maulawi Jawadullah was killed in the airstrike Wednesday in Takhar Province.