Word: baghran
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...already have the answer. But it's riddle that can't be solved in Kandahar. To the west is Helmand province, an unruly place that makes the Kandaharis wary. "They're wild people," the Kandaharis' are quick to counsel. Deep in Helmand's north, guarded by great mountains, is Baghran. A formidable domain - and the sanctuary where Omar is thought to have fled...
...grey kameez and flowing shirt he wore a neat-cut waistcoat. A bushy black beard tumbled from his face. He talked slowly; the same as he moved. "[Helmand] Governor Haji Shir Mohammed and American soldiers have gone on this road to Kajaki [a town to the north in the Baghran area], " he said...
...wheel-drive vehicles carrying about 20 U.S. special-forces soldiers raced through Musa Qal'eh with U.S. helicopters and fighter-bombers overhead. Accompanying them was a band of Afghan fighters and the governor of Helmand, Haji Shir Mohammed. The convoy was on its way to the nearby town of Baghran to meet an aged, white-bearded tribal leader named Rais, better known as "the Baghran"-the most powerful warlord in the area and a possible link to Omar...
...Since last month, the U.S. has been impatiently following the glacial negotiations meant to secure the surrender of Taliban fighters around Baghran. Rais, who fought hard for the Taliban, said last week he was willing to surrender to the new U.S.-backed Afghan government. What got the U.S. especially interested were intelligence reports that it was Rais who had chaperoned Omar on his escape from Kandahar. Rais denies those reports. On Saturday, Governor Shir told Time that in meetings with U.S. special forces, Rais had "confirmed the absence" from the area of both Omar and Osama bin Laden but agreed...
...Tommy Franks, chief of U.S. Central Command. "We've been pretty honest about that. We've said he is either dead or alive, and he is either inside Afghanistan or he isn't." While some leaders of the new Afghan government believe bin Laden is hiding with Omar near Baghran, American officials are skeptical. They believe that if he survived the bombing of the Tora Bora caves, he is most likely to be in hiding on one side or the other of the Afghan border with Pakistan...