Word: khost
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...acceptable in the pursuit of a story. My decision to visit Sarobi, north of Kabul, began to feel a bit foolish. Since I first started coming to Afghanistan in 2003, I have driven this road scores of times. The same with the road west, to Kandahar, and south, to Khost. These days the roads are all but off-limits, plagued by Taliban insurgents, war or rampant criminality that leaves no vehicle untouched. Kabul is encircled, say residents of the capital. While the city itself is safe, they say, the Taliban are encroaching from all sides...
Karzai clearly believes that the growing violence in Afghanistan is the result of ISI support for the resurgent Taliban, a group whose regime was cultivated by the Pakistani spy agency until 9/11. During the past 24 hours, two waves of eight suicide bombers have attacked the U.S. base in Khost; and 10 French soldiers, part of the NATO force, have been killed in an ongoing battle near Kabul. In his interview, Karzai was sympathetic toward Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, who has tried in vain to impose civilian control over the ISI. "Mr. Gilani is a good man," said...
...days leading up to 9/11, Hamdan joined a small motorcade of al-Qaeda leaders, including bin Laden and his top lieutenant, Ayman al-Zawahiri, who drove into the mountains above Khost to watch the hijacked planes crash into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on satellite TV. Hamdan was also at bin Laden's side - as a driver - in the weeks that followed, while the motorcade moved from one guesthouse to the next as bin Laden and al-Zawahiri readied their remaining fighters for America's imminent invasion...
...guide's village is even closer to the border; he fled for the relative safety of Khost just after the attack. He refused to take us to the town, for fear of attack, and wouldn't let me go, either. He said that even disguised in a burqa, the way I walked would give me away as a foreigner, and my presence would create problems for the village. Instead, he said, Balazs could go, accompanied by Hajji Muslim's son - Balazs is Hungarian, and his black beard and dark eyes made it easier for him to pass. Maybe too well...
...When she hears about Taliban, she wants to go see them." It may be true that I'd never been close enough to a suicide bomber or an exploding IED to learn to be afraid. But that's starting to change. About 15 minutes after Balazs and I left Khost for the 7-hour drive back to Kabul, a suicide bomber detonated himself when stopped by the police, killing four people and wounding a dozen more. He was heading towards Hajji Muslim's office. The Chief of Police said the bomber had been looking for two foreigners...