Word: fortresses
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...last Wednesday night Mullah Fazil, Taliban commander of northern Afghanistan, leader of the 13,000-strong Kunduz garrison and deputy of supreme leader Mullah Mohammed Omar, drove into Dostum's mud-walled fortress to talk surrender. The two men and armed aides shared vast plates of qabeli, the Afghan staple of rice and mutton, and bowls of pistachios, to break the Ramadan fast. "They were laughing and chatting," commander Mohammad Anwar Qureishi, one of the Alliance leaders present, told TIME, "and hours before, they had wanted to kill each other...
...days the city celebrated its liberation, but soon the victorious commanders zeroed in on the spoils. While Dostum, an Uzbek, held court at his Kalai Jangi fortress to the southeast, Tajik leader Atta Mohammed and Hazara chief Haji Mohammed Mohaqiq set themselves up in palatial villas in their own quarters of the city. In public all three insist their convenient alliance is holding as they empty Mazar of armed men and set up a joint security force...
...players for the foreseeable future. Two of the commanders, Ustad Mohammed Atta (of Tajik descent) and Haji Mohammed Mohaqiq (a member of the Hazara tribe), set themselves up in palatial villas in the city center. General Rashid Dostum, an Uzbek, took over Kalai Jangi, an ancient mud-walled fortress to the southwest. In public, all three insist an alliance born of necessity is holding. They say they are cooperating in the primary task of emptying Mazar of armed men and establishing a joint security force under the authority of an all-inclusive council. "We were united, we are united...
...Taliban fighters, many of whom were foreigners, were transported from the field of surrender to a holding site in Qala-i-Jangi, a sprawling 19th century prison fortress to the west of Mazar, where Dostum stabled his horses. The convoy of prisoners had to pass through the city center; two weeks before, the Taliban had ruled the streets. The prisoners now peered out from under their blankets with shell-shocked, bloodshot eyes. The people of Mazar stared back at them with open hatred...
...SUNDAY MORNING The next morning, two Americans went to meet the prisoners at Qala-i-Jangi. Their mission at the fortress: to identify any members of al-Qaeda among the prisoners. But the Americans didn't conduct the interviews one by one?another mistake. Instead, at 11:15 a.m., the pair?Johnny Micheal Spann, 32, one of the CIA agents who had been active in Afghanistan since the war's beginning, the other identified by colleagues only as "Dave"?were taken to an open area outside the cells and a group of prisoners brought to meet them. According to members...