Word: haji
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...week and a half in April 2005, one of the favorite warlords of fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar was sitting in a room at the Embassy Suites Hotel in lower Manhattan, not far from where the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center once stood. But Haji Bashar Noorzai, the burly, bearded leader of one of Afghanistan's largest and most troublesome tribes, was not on a mission to case New York City for a terrorist attack. On the contrary, Noorzai, a confidant of the fugitive Taliban overlord, who is a well-known ally of Osama bin Laden...
...second and similar incident followed a few months later. Noorzai says he had persuaded a former mujahedin fighter named Haji Birqet Khan, 75, who was close to the Taliban, to come out of hiding in Pakistan and meet with the Americans. But days after Birqet and Noorzai got together in Kandahar, U.S. attack helicopters swooped in and bombarded Birqet's home, killing him and two of his grandchildren. The U.S. claimed it had got wind of a plot by Noorzai and Birqet to attack American forces. Noorzai says that report was erroneous. "He was an innocent man, a tribal leader...
...most ordinary Afghans in the south are willing to give NATO a chance. But if the alliance is to prevail, it will probably need to reexamine its strategy. "At the moment there is very little public support for NATO, but it is not the end of the world," said Haji Abdul Khaliq, a senator in neighbouring Uruzgan province. "If NATO wants cooperation from people they should change their strategy and stop fighting and build roads and schools...
...killed while protecting Ali. When Ahmed's younger brother Jaafer came to collect Husam's body, a sniper lying in wait put several bullets in Jaafer's legs. Jaafer lived but will always walk with a severe limp. He is among the lucky ones. The town's mayor, Haji Mohammed Hassan al-Zubeidy, says some 180 people have been murdered in Dujail since Saddam's trial began in October 2005. Basam Ridha, adviser to the Prime Minister for the Saddam trial, puts the number closer to 200. About 80 more have vanished while traveling on the road between Dujail...
...police. Drug money, which accounts for perhaps one-third to one-half of Afghanistan's gross national product, creates its own loyalty. Druglords, some of whom have government connections or even hold official posts, "give the Taliban money and weapons" to keep the security forces occupied, says Haji Mirwais, the deputy police commander in Gereshk. "If we go somewhere, someone tips them off, and we get ambushed." In return, the Taliban safeguards heroin factories and provides armed escorts for drug convoys. U.S. military officers say the confluence of drugs and militancy has left parts of southern Afghanistan virtually ungovernable. Says...