Nearly one year ago, Marjah was the scene of some of the deadliest fighting since the beginning of Operation Enduring Freedom. Now, after the persistence of 2nd Battalion, 9th Marine Regiment, the area is lauded as proof that counterinsurgency operations can work.

Gen. James Amos, the commandant of the Marine Corps, visited 2/9 in December and compared the battalion’s success to the victories in Fallujah and Ramadi.

“You have snow-plowed the enemy out of the northern part of Marjah!” said Amos, quoting Maj.Gen. Richard Mills, the commanding general of Regional Command Southwest.

Video by Regimental Combat Team-2, 1st Marine Division Public Affairs

Nigerian police say new clashes in the country's troubled central region have killed at least 12 people.

Police in Plateau state say dozens of gunmen believed to be Muslim Fulani herdsmen attacked at least three villages in the early hours of Thursday.

A military spokesman says troops killed two of the attackers as they tried to flee. Police say they have detained at least 29 people responsible for the attacks, including a police officer based in the capital, Abuja.

Much of Mexico is now under the grip of drug-related violence that has claimed 30,000 lives since president Felipe Calderon declared war on organized criminal gangs in December, 2006. While polls show support for the president's policy, they also show that a large percentage of people believe the government is losing the war.

While crime is a big concern in Mexico City, people feel far removed from what is happening along the northern border or in other violence-plagued areas.

A southern Russian leader is blaming Islamist rebels for the Moscow airport bombing.

Ingushetia President Yunus-bek Yevkurov blames the Caucasus Emirate rebel group for Monday’s massive bombing of Moscow’s busiest airport. Talking to foreign reporters, he said these leaders, the Northern Caucasus underground, are responsible, like Doku Umarov. Umarov, a Chechen, calls himself emir of the Caucasus Emirate. The emirate is a loose confederation of Islamic radicals with cells along Russia’s southern fringe - Tajikistan, Chechnya, Ingushetia and Kabardino-Balkaria.

Soldiers from 1st Company, 5th Commando Kandak and Special Operations Task Force – East destroyed a weapons cache located in a cave near Qara Batur village, Baghlan province Jan. 26.

The Afghan-led force discovered the cave while conducting clearing operations in the area, known to be an insurgent staging location. The cache included 28 60mm mortar rounds, more than 200 rounds of DSHK anti-aircraft ammunition, a rocket-propelled grenade launcher with rounds and AK-47 assault rifle ammunition.

An air weapons team was requested and both the cave and cache were destroyed on site.

The International Security Assistance Force confirmed two Taliban leaders were detained and Noorani Sahib, a Taliban leader was killed during Afghan and coalition forces operations in Kandahar, Nimroz and Zabul provinces Jan. 23, 25 and yesterday respectively.

Much accolade is given to the Afghan National Army, but there is another unit of fellow countrymen that is providing security to their republic – the Afghan Border Police.

The ABP partnered with the Marines and sailors of 3rd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, 1st Marine Division (Forward), for a patrol through local villages outside Combat Outpost Castle, Jan. 27, 2011.

The ABP’s mission is to enforce laws and provide security to the southern areas of Helmand province near the Pakistan border.

WASHINGTON -- This year's State of the Union address has been parsed, analyzed, applauded (80 times), celebrated and derided. The rhetoric has been described as "visionary" and "myopic." The president's promises and pledges have been depicted as "important" and "hollow." None of that really matters in the near term. What's most important right now is how the Obama administration handles the increasingly intense cries for greater freedom sweeping from Tunisia to Yemen -- threatening every authoritarian Muslim regime in that region save one: Iran's.