Word: baghran
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...build the roads and wells can come." The sixteen other leaders - all in kameez, vests and brand new army jackets - concurred, talking over each other and contributing to every question. They swore they'd not supported the Taliban, though thousands of soldiers were recruited from here; six hundred from Baghran are prisoners with the Northern Alliance in Mazar-i-Sharif and Kunduz alone. "The Taliban would not ask to take our sons, they would catch them on the road," said Gaffar. As we sat in the sun listening to these men, I doubted a homegrown commander like Rais needed...
...Face to face with Rais the Baghran...
...Baghran is along a dry riverbed; with vehicles negotiating fields of rough river stones, inconvenient boulders, dusty sand banks and pools of cold water. It's slow, slow going. On either side sheer mountains glare down like surly sentinels. Villages are few. At times we drove up from the river and across low folds of hills where endless gullies and draws make for good ambush. No wonder the Russians could never capture Baghran. A Soviet tank, ruptured by rockets, rusts at one turn; a scant reminder of a failed campaign...
...down the road, the soldiers relaxed while I made a call on the satellite phone. A rock half a mile away was chosen as the target and shooting practice ensued with much joking and laughter and cheers. With respective prowess affirmed, we moved on. We didn't arrive in Baghran village until noon...
...right when the door to the courtyard opened and a small, wiry man with a hardened set to his face walked through. The throng of elders leapt up. They crowded the man, each shaking his hand, some kissing it, before bringing him towards us. It was Rais the Baghran, the man much of the world believes spirited Mullah Omar to safety. He stopped a few paces short of me and cased me out, looking up and down with a careful eye. I put his age a shade over fifty, but athleticism still oozed from him. For a "white-bearded...