Word: kabul
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...Only a fool would dare predict Afghanistan's future. But if the insurgents get their way, Kabul's renovated airport could get some real use in an exodus of Westerners...
...help but be impressed by Kabul's airport, which is in the middle of being refurbished. A fresh coat of salmon-colored paint, acoustic ceilings and fast laptops at immigration processing. In the departure lounge, there's even a reassuring bright yellow sign: "Renovation of Kabul International Airport. We apologize for any inconvenience caused during the renovation process." The sign is in English, not Dari. But never mind: you can still smoke anywhere in the terminal. You can't expect everything to change overnight...
...Outside the airport, though, the illusion evaporates. For a start, the distance between the terminal and the parking lot is at least a hundred yards. No surprise there. On the average these days there is a suicide car-bombing a day in and around Kabul. The Taliban started firing rockets at Kabul. They go unreported in the news because they aren't doing damage. It takes the murder of NATO troops to generate a wire report, like last week's murder of six Canadian soldiers in Kandahar...
...Driving around Kabul I came across a British patrol that had just been attacked by a suicide bomber in a Toyota Corolla, wounding two. They were lucky, and it never made the news. I wondered how bad the rest of Afghanistan is, and, as I usually do when I get to a new city, I casually asked around where I could go and couldn't go. Forget Kandahar, I was told. Even heavy armor is vulnerable to the new improvised explosive devices showing up in Afghanistan. Which means that you can't drive to Herat. Nor can you set foot...
Within two hours of the attack Taliban spokesman Qari Yusuf Ahmadi claimed responsibility, identifying a 25-year-old Kabul resident named Hasim as the bomber. "This is part of our ongoing ambush operations," he said. "The more we kill foreigners and Americans, the more we will kill Afghan forces who are working as their slaves." Ahmadi was making a reference as well to a suicide car attack on Saturday on a NATO convoy that killed four and wounded five. General Paktiawaal, watching the announcement on the TV in his office, looked harassed and angry. "This is a terrorist attack...