| Hamid Karzai has begun the first known armed uprising against the Taliban in southern Afghanistan since the U.S.-led airstrike campaign began, fighting off a Taliban attack and claiming to control part of a southern province. Karzai, an influential Pashtun figure, said he survived a Taliban attack on a meeting of tribal elders he convened in Uruzgan province, and that his forces captured 12 Taliban soldiers in the skirmish. (By Marc Kaufman Washington Post) |