A suicide bomber attacked inside a mosque in Kandahar, killing over 20 people. This southern Afghan city is in the heart of Taliban country, surrounded by conservative Pushtun tribes. The attack was made during a memorial service for a pro-government Islamic cleric who was killed by the Taliban last week.
The government is beginning to crack down on the most obvious, and open, drug operations in the country. A raid on the village of Bahram Shah, in Helmand province, is a notorious way station for drug smugglers moving into Pakistan and Iran. The police seized two tons of opium, 550 pounds of heroin and 3.5 tons of chemicals used to convert opium into heroin. No one was arrested, apparently the villagers were tipped off.