While condemning the attacks that killed at least 175 people in Mumbai, the governments of India and Pakistan should cooperate in a prompt and thorough investigation to identify the perpetrators and planners of the attacks and hold them accountable.

Ishmael is a victim of a 2007 rendition program in the Horn of Africa, involving Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and the United States. There are at least 90 more victims like him. Most have since been sent home. A few – including a Canadian and nine who assert Kenyan nationality – remain in detention even now. The whereabouts of 22 others – including several Somalis, Ethiopian Ogadenis, and Eritreans - remain unknown.

Civilian deaths in Afghanistan from US and NATO airstrikes nearly tripled from 2006 to 2007, with recent deadly airstrikes exacerbating the problem and fuelling a public backlash.

International action is needed to end the Lord’s Resistance Army’s reported new spree of abductions and sexual violence and to help execute arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court for the group’s leaders, Human Rights Watch said today.

On March 3 two Tomahawk missiles were launched toward Dobley, Somalia in the fourth U.S. airstrike aimed at individuals with Al Qaeda links in Somalia since January 2007. While missing its target, shrapnel from the missiles injured six civilians, a pattern that echoes previous U.S. strikes in Somalia. Such strikes inevitably turn ordinary Somalis against the United States, thereby bolstering support for militant groups, while the human rights and humanitarian crisis that terrorists feed off -- and that U.S. policies exacerbate -- is largely ignored. Additionally, the Ethiopian military offensive that ousted the ruling Islamist authority from Mogadishu and installed a weak but internationally backed transitional government triggered a predictable insurgency by both Islamist militants and ordinary Somalis, with the resulting conflict having led to thousands of civilian deaths and displaced persons. Ultimately, an effective counter-terrorism policy must address the underlying human rights and humanitarian tragedies that are fueling the crisis, as it has become clear that eliminating a few alleged terrorists will not solve these deeper problems.

Human Rights Watch writes to urge Dr. Ihsanoglu to use his position as Secretary General of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference to support measures at the upcoming Summit of the Organisation of Islamic Conference in Dakar, Senegal on March 13-14 that would improve and strengthen the 1999 OIC Convention on Combating International Terrorism. In particular, the OIC should consider two amendments to the Convention to narrow its overbroad definition of terrorism and make absolutely clear that there is no sanction in Islam for deliberately attacking civilians, whatever the circumstances or justifications.

The Taliban should immediately release all hostages in its custody, Human Rights Watch said today. The recent abduction and hostage-taking of at least five Afghan, two German, and 23 South Korean civilians, and the reported killing of several of them, are war crimes.