On Friday’s broadcast of HBO’s “Real Time,” host Bill Maher argued that we should abandon Operation Epic Fury and “cut and run” and take the “If you get in with us, we are going to f*ck you, okay,” approach we
The post Maher: Time to ‘Cut and Run’ with Iran Like in Afghanistan, Even if It Screws Those Who Got in With Us appeared first on Breitbart.
Australian authorities have arrested and charged the country's most decorated living soldier, Ben Roberts-Smith, 47, with five war crime murders allegedly committed during the war in Afghanistan.
Roberts-Smith, a former member of the Australian Defence Force, was arrested at Sydney Airport on Tuesday. His arrest has sparked outcry from a former Australian prime minister, who argued its unfair to judge the actions of "men in mortal combat by the standards of ordinary civilian life." X owner Elon Musk also weighed in on the arrest, calling it "insane."
The Australian Federal Police and the Office of the Special Investigator said Roberts-Smith is being charged in connection with the killings of five unarmed Afghans in three separate incidents between 2009 and 2012. AFP Commissioner Krissy Barrett alleged that Roberts-Smith either killed the unarmed Afghans himself or instructed a subordinate to kill them. If convicted, Roberts-Smith faces life imprisonment on each charge.
"It will be alleged the victims were not taking part in hostilities at the time of their alleged murder in Afghanistan," Barrett said during a press conference. "It will be alleged the victims were detained, unarmed and were under the control of ADF members when they were killed."
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The investigation into Roberts-Smith began in 2021, according to Ross Barnett, director of investigations at the Office of the Special Investigator. Roberts-Smith received the Victoria Cross after storming two enemy machine guns during his fifth tour in Afghanistan.
Barnett said at the press conference that the investigation was "under challenging circumstances," given that some of the murders occurred well over a decade ago and investigators were unable to visit Afghanistan.
"We don’t have access to the crime scenes, we don’t have photographs, site plans, measurements, the recovery of projectiles, blood spatter analysis, all of those things we would normally get at a crime scene," Barnett said at the press conference.
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While Australia's current prime minister has yet to weigh in on the arrest, former Australian Prime Minister and leader of the Liberal Party Tony Abbott expressed his support for Roberts-Smith on X in a lengthy post.
"If Ben Roberts-Smith transgressed, why wasn’t this picked up prior to his gallantry awards and why wasn’t any culture of brutality towards prisoners detected by his more senior officers, and dealt with quickly, rather than being allowed to fester, as has been alleged, for over a decade?" Abbott wrote.
Allegations that Roberts-Smith engaged in war crimes began circulating publicly in 2017 and 2018 in articles published by The Age, the Sydney Morning Herald and The Canberra Times.
Roberts-Smith filed a defamation suit against the papers, which became Australia's most expensive defamation trial, but in 2023, a Federal Court judge ruled that four of the six murder allegations brought by the papers against Roberts-Smith were legitimate.
In one of the allegations ruled to have merit by Justice Anthony Besanko, Roberts-Smith allegedly marched a handcuffed Afghan man named Ali Jan off the edge of a 10-meter cliff. He survived the fall, but Roberts-Smith and his fellow soldiers walked down a footpath to meet him. Roberts-Smith then ordered a subordinate, known as Person 11 in court, to shoot him.
The High Court dismissed Roberts-Smith's appeal of the ruling in September 2025.
The criminal charges against Roberts-Smith stem from a joint effort by OSI and AFP. The two Australian agencies have conducted 53 investigations into ADF members tied to war crime allegations in Afghanistan. Ten of the investigations remain ongoing.
Pakistan is walking a tightrope as the Iran war intensifies, with that balance growing more precarious with each passing day.
Islamabad has so far pursued cautious diplomacy, condemning the strikes on Iran, while simultaneously urging de-escalation. But analysts warn it cannot remain insulated from competing pressures.
"Pakistan is putting itself forward as a mediator between the U.S. and Iran, but unconvincingly," Edmund Fitton-Brown, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies told Fox News Digital. "Its own record of staying out of military entanglements is unimpressive."
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At the forefront of the tensions is a new defense agreement with Saudi Arabia, which states that aggression against one will be treated as a threat to both. Widely seen as one of Pakistan's most consequential defense agreements, it commits the country to Riyadh, while risking confrontation with Iran.
Pakistan, the only nuclear-armed Muslim state, already has troops stationed in Saudi Arabia for training and defense support and has said there is "no question" of coming to the kingdom's aid.
"Remember, Pakistan is geographically part of both South Asia and Central Asia, as well as the wider Gulf/MENA region too. Pakistan has always pursued peace, dialogue and order because we know what war does to our region," Mosharraf Zaidi, spokesperson for foreign media to the Pakistani prime minister, told Fox News Digital.
Within days of the war's outbreak, the country's army chief, General Asim Munir, made an "emergency" visit to Saudi Arabia, where top officials discussed joint responses to Iranian strikes. It was the first true test of the pact.
Relations are strong between the two nations, and Riyadh remains a key economic lifeline for Islamabad. Saudi Arabia has already been making arrangements to support energy supplies, as war-driven fuel disruptions hit import-dependent Pakistan.
Yet Pakistan’s relationship with Iran is equally critical.
The two share a 565-mile border along with deep trade ties and significant religious connections.
Pakistan is home to the world’s second-largest Shiite community after Iran. Pro-Iran regime protests in the wake of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s assassination turned deadly, forcing military intervention and curfews.
Maintaining ties with Tehran is crucial for containing domestic tensions and staving off an insurgency from the minority Baloch community there.
Iran is also an important economic partner to Pakistan, which has been facing a severe economic crisis. The two conduct significant trade, with a new goal of $10 billion by 2028.
Pakistan’s foreign minister has held "constant conversations" with his Iranian counterpart throughout the conflict. And last week, a Pakistani oil tanker transited the essentially blockaded Strait of Hormuz. Analysts noted it was the first non-Iranian cargo ship to do so since tensions escalated, suggesting that safe passage may have been negotiated. Officials add that more Pakistan-bound oil tankers are likely to cross the strait in the coming days.
Most of Pakistan’s crude and LNG imports pass through the Strait of Hormuz. But as the war grinds on, analysts warn Pakistan’s room for neutrality is shrinking.
Pakistan recently went against Iran, backing a Gulf-led resolution at the United Nations condemning regional aggression. Russia and China abstained.
Meanwhile, Iran's foreign minister just called for regional coordination in separate calls with Pakistan, Turkey and Egypt.
At the same time, Islamabad must also navigate relations with Washington, yet another key partner.
Under President Donald Trump’s second term, Pakistan has sought closer relations with the U.S., even floating his name for the Nobel Peace Prize.
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Questions are also emerging in Washington. During a White House briefing, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the administration was coordinating with the Pentagon to assess whether Pakistan is supporting Iran, while describing India as a "good actor."
India’s positioning has added further pressure, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent visit to Israel.
"There is no contradiction in being absolutely committed to peace, dialogue and order. The strong relationships Pakistan has with the United States, with Saudi Arabia, with Iran and with China are a testament to Pakistan’s commitment," the Pakistani prime minister's spokesperson, Zaidi said.
So far, Pakistan has effectively positioned itself at the forefront of mediation efforts to end the ongoing conflict, leveraging its ties with all three powerhouses.
Reports indicate that high-level talks between the U.S. and Iran are set for Islamabad as early as this weekend.
"Pakistan wants to matter to the U.S. and to be a better partner than India. Because the Afghan Taliban have alienated Islamabad since 2021, there are few remaining sore points between the U.S. and Pakistan, with the latter able to present as an ally against terrorism," Fitton-Brown said. "And most regional parties want to see the crisis end sooner rather than later. But nobody wants to see the Islamic Republic strengthened in Iran."
The spiraling war comes at a critical time for Pakistan's already stretched military. Tensions with India remain elevated, while border clashes, airstrikes, drone attacks and rising civilian casualties have become the norm with once friendly neighbor Afghanistan.
The nations nosedived into an "all-out war," just days before the Iran conflict broke out, and the violence shows no signs of easing after fresh Pakistani strikes recently hit the Afghan capital city of Kabul.
"This geography and the region’s history is why Pakistan steadfastly rejects India’s efforts at regional hegemony, it is why Pakistan is pursuing a termination of the Afghan Taliban regime’s support for terrorist groups," Zaidi said. "We seek a complete cessation of terrorism emanating from territory currently controlled by the Afghan Taliban."
With Pakistan already managing tensions on both its eastern border with India and its western frontier with Afghanistan, a destabilized Iran could push that strain further.
"If Islamabad is destabilized, it will be extremely bad news regionally and globally," Edmund Fitton-Brown told Fox. "The idea of a nuclear power under jihadi rule doesn’t bear thinking about."
A reported airstrike on a hospital in Afghanistan that allegedly left hundreds dead is drawing growing scrutiny, not only over the strike itself but over what critics describe as a muted international response.
Afghanistan’s Taliban-led government said more than 400 people were killed and hundreds were wounded after a strike hit the Omid Hospital, a major drug rehabilitation facility in Kabul, Afghanistan, according to Reuters. Civilians, including children, also have been killed in escalating cross-border strikes in Pakistan, The Associated Press reported.
The casualty figures have not been independently verified.
The strike comes amid a rapidly escalating military campaign between Pakistan and Afghanistan that has intensified over the past three weeks.
Cross-border airstrikes and clashes have expanded across multiple provinces, with Pakistan targeting what it says are bases of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a militant group responsible for attacks inside Pakistan and designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. The Taliban government has accused Islamabad of violating Afghanistan’s sovereignty.
At a United Nations briefing Wednesday, a U.N. spokesperson said the conflict has now entered its third week, with widespread civilian impact. More than 115,000 people have been displaced, more than 300 shelters damaged or destroyed, and at least 25 health facilities closed or disrupted due to the fighting, according to U.N. humanitarian agencies.
Pakistan has denied targeting a hospital, saying the operation struck militant infrastructure.
"Since the beginning of this counterterrorism campaign, Pakistan has sought to defend and protect the people of Pakistan … by targeting terrorists and terrorist infrastructure that are incubated and nurtured by the Afghan Taliban," the prime minister’s spokesperson Mosharraf Zaidi told Fox News Digital.
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Zaidi said the strike targeted weapons and ammunition at Camp Phoenix in Kabulm Afghanistan, and insisted, "There are no civilian hospitals in Camp Phoenix," adding that reports of a rehabilitation facility being hit may be due to "secondary explosions" from stored weapons.
The United Nations on Wednesday, two days after the attack, condemned the reported strike, with Secretary-General António Guterres, through a spokesperson, "strongly condemning" an airstrike that "reportedly resulted in the death (and) injury of civilians at a hospital," and calling for an independent investigation.
Still, some analysts say the response does not match the scale of the incident.
"U.N. officials swiftly condemned U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran’s regime as unlawful ‘aggression’ … Yet Pakistan’s airstrike on Kabul’s Omid Hospital — killing over 400 civilians — has drawn only a belated ‘strong condemnation’ … and standard pleas for ‘de-escalation’," Executive Director of UN Watch Hillel Neuer told Fox News Digital.
"This restrained response — no personal outrage from Guterres, no emergency session naming Pakistan, and no equivalent chorus from U.N. rapporteurs, or agencies like WHO, U.N. Women, and UNICEF — reveals rank hypocrisy," he said. "When hundreds of vulnerable Afghans die in a hospital, the U.N. offers measured words. Yet when the U.S. or Israel can be blamed — justifiably or not — the condemnation is immediate and overwhelming. When some victims matter far more than others, the U.N. reveals its cynical political agenda. This double standard doesn’t uphold human rights, it erodes them."
Australian human rights lawyer Arsen Ostrovsky echoed that criticism in a post on X, calling the strike "an absolute massacre," while noting what he described as a lack of global outrage: "World outrage? Zero. Could barely muster p17 in the newspaper here."
Kurz bevor die Eskalation in Nahost begann, erklärte auch Pakistan Afghanistan den Krieg. Worum es hierbei geht.
Der Beitrag Warum Pakistan die Taliban angreift erschien zuerst auf .
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio designated Afghanistan as a "state sponsor of wrongful detention," accusing the Taliban of "unjustly" detaining Americans and other foreign nationals.
In his announcement on Monday, Rubio said the Taliban continues to use "terrorist tactics" that he insisted "need to end."
"I am designating Afghanistan as a State Sponsor of Wrongful Detention," Rubio said in a statement. "The Taliban continues to use terrorist tactics, kidnapping individuals for ransom or to seek policy concessions. These despicable tactics need to end."
The secretary also called on the terror group to free a pair of Americans who are "unjustly detained" in Afghanistan.
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"It is not safe for Americans to travel to Afghanistan because the Taliban continues to unjustly detain our fellow Americans and other foreign nationals," he said. "The Taliban needs to release Dennis Coyle, Mahmoud Habibi, and all Americans unjustly detained in Afghanistan now and commit to cease the practice of hostage diplomacy forever."
Coyle, 64, was detained more than a year ago without charges by the Taliban General Directorate of Intelligence, according to his family, noting that he still has not been charged. His family said he was legally working to support Afghan language communities as an academic researcher.
Habibi, a 38-year-old American citizen who was born in Afghanistan, was taken along with his driver from their vehicle in the capital of Kabul in August 2022 by the Taliban General Directorate of Intelligence, according to the State Department.
The FBI said Habibi was previously Afghanistan’s director of civil aviation and worked for the Kabul-based telecommunications company Asia Consultancy Group. The FBI said the Taliban detained 29 other employees of the company but has released most of them.
Habibi has not been heard from since his arrest, and the Taliban has not disclosed his whereabouts or condition, according to the State Department and FBI. The Taliban has previously denied it detained Habibi.
The U.S. is also calling for the return of the remains of Paul Overby, an author who was last seen close to Afghanistan's border with Pakistan in 2014, according to Reuters, citing two sources familiar with the situation.
The State Department could restrict the use of U.S. passports for travel to Afghanistan if the Taliban does not meet the U.S. government's demands, the sources told the outlet.
A passport restriction of this kind is currently only in place for North Korea.
The Taliban called the decision by Rubio to designate Afghanistan a "state sponsor of wrongful detention" regrettable, adding that it wanted to resolve the matter through dialogue.
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The Taliban took control of Afghanistan in 2021 during the U.S. military’s chaotic withdrawal from the country that ended the 20-year war in the region.
Rubio gave the "state sponsor of wrongful detention" designation to Iran late last month, just one day before the U.S.-Israeli strikes on the country. He warned that the U.S. could restrict travel to Iran over its detention of U.S. citizens, but there have not been any restrictions yet.
"The Iranian regime must stop taking hostages and release all Americans unjustly detained in Iran, steps that could end this designation and associated actions," Rubio said at the time.
Reuters contributed to this report.
Der Konflikt zwischen Pakistan und den Taliban in Afghanistan flammt wieder auf. Beide Seiten liefern sich entlang der Durand-Linie heftige Gefechte. Von Michael Steiner Wenn …
Der Beitrag Durand-Linie in Flammen – Wie Pakistan und die Taliban Eurasiens Pulverfass neu entfachen erschien zuerst auf Contra24.
