The search continues for four members of a SEAL recon team that is missing along the Pakistan border. A rescue team died when their MH-47 helicopter went down on June 28th. The recon team had apparently spotted a large group of Taliban, and called in air strikes that hit a village where the Taliban were hiding. Civilians, as well as Taliban, were killed in those air attacks. 

The Taliban are increasing their use of violence against Afghans who will not cooperate with them. In southern Afghanistan, the Taliban killed nine elders in one village, in an effort to get the local tribe to stop supporting the government. This is a desperate measure, for, traditionally, it's the central government that uses this sort of terror, not a relatively weak fringe group operating from bases across the border.