Word: haji
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...follies had only just begun. As al-Qaeda fighters scampered up the mountains in search of safe haven, one of the warlords, Haji Zaman, agreed to a cease-fire without bothering to consult the other two Afghan commanders or the U.S. Zaman claims the Arab-speaking fighters reached him via wireless and offered to surrender on the condition that they be turned over to the United Nations. "They said they had to get in contact with each other and would surrender group by group," Zaman says. He then announced the cease-fire, halted his troops' advance and gave the opposition...
...relentlessly. Sure enough, the next day, the surrendering al-Qaeda troops had vanished. Zaman's aides insist that they were probably "confused" when the U.S. broke the cease-fire and scampered back into their holes. But other Afghan leaders thought Zaman had been duped. "It was a trick," said Haji Zahir, one of the warlords commanding Afghan troops in Tora Bora. "They were buying time...
...charge on Monday, Crazy found a white coat left by Al Qaeda fighters who had held a forward ridge the day before. "This is Osama bin Laden's coat!" he yelled as he pulled in on, twisted a white head scarf around his head, and called his commander, Haji Zahir, one more time on the wireless. "I told him, "if you return unsuccessful, I'll kill you,'" says Zahir. "It was sort of a joke, to push him further...
...into the mountains that they're offering to surrender. Small-arms fire crackled through Tuesday morning, but by afternoon the caves were secure, both sides had declared a cease-fire and the attackers were combing the area that once seemed unassailable for war booty. One of three top commanders, Haji Zaman, spoke with an Arab leader by wireless. "He said don't fight, we want to surrender," says Zaman. He ordered them to give themselves up by 8 AM Wednesday or face a renewed assault...
...expect the situation to improve. Another of the city's power brokers, provincial governor and Pashtun leader Haji Abdul Qadir, was in Bonn for talks on the future national government when he staged a walkout, citing a lack of Pashtun representation. One of his last acts before leaving Jalalabad had been to declare that visitors entering Afghanistan through the Khyber Pass?one of only two border crossings from Pakistan?must first obtain written permission from his office. Permission costs $100. Foreigners traveling to Jalalabad must stay in his residence. This also costs $100, or more than triple the price...