Word: khost
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...were warned when we got to Khost that there may be suicide bombers in town, so we took precautions. I wrapped a scarf tightly around my head to hide my blond hair, and thought about buying a pair of brown contact lenses next time I return to the U.S. Balazs Gardi, TIME's photographer, traded his polar fleece and khakis for a shalwar kameez, the loose tunic and baggy trousers worn by Afghan men. Suicide bombers here often seek targets of opportunity, so we didn't want to draw any attention to ourselves...
...cross-border terrorism. About 13 miles away, in Pakistan's North Waziristan tribal agency, lies Mir Ali, near which several Taliban training camps are said to be based. "That's the center of international terrorism," said our host Hajji Faisel Rahman Muslim. Whether or not that's true, many Khost residents are convinced that the town is the Qaeda headquarters responsible for the plague of suicide bombings (some 20 this year) that have rocked Khost...
...government troops and would end cross-border raids into Afghanistan. On that front, the agreement has clearly failed - cross-border attacks have increased threefold since September, according to U.S. military officials. Many of those have been bomb attacks on government officials and police officers in provincial capitals such as Khost. Last year, Hajji Muslim was nearly killed by a remote-detonated IED that blew apart his car and left him with chunks of shrapnel in his leg. When we traveled with him, it was with no small amount of caution...
...Back in Afghanistan, the disaster at Zambar has become a textbook case for coalition forces of what can go wrong if a unit doesn't get its local intelligence right. A newly arrived U.S. lieutenant was briefed on the incident when he arrived at the Khost base two months ago. Back in 2002, he says, "we didn't understand that if somebody around here starts shooting, they aren't necessarily shooting at you. These people all have enemies." After studying reports of the incident, the lieutenant has concluded that in the chaos of battle, at night, and in rough, unfamiliar...
...other villagers grabbed a few rope cots to use as stretchers for the wounded, but the intensity of the bombing forced them back until daybreak. One of the tribal elders had a walkie-talkie. He managed to call a nearby police station, whose officers contacted the coalition base at Khost, about 60 km away, to say U.S. warplanes were killing innocent tribesmen. Once out of the valley, three squadron found a safe area and made camp. There, says the patrol leader, the trooper who had taken the trophies began showing them off, even putting on the dead man's turban...