Word: stronghold
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...Jungle To get to the KIA's mountainous stronghold of Laiza, I first traveled deep into China's southwestern Yunnan province, to a small trading settlement called Nabang. Even though the border town is in China, many of its residents wore Burmese longyis, or sarongs, and women's faces were painted beige with the thanaka paste used in Burma as a skin salve. Despite the occasional truck rumbling past overloaded with teak logs from Burma, Nabang felt like it was just emerging from an opium-induced...
...permitted to initiate the fight, German forces in July launched their biggest operation since World War II to clear Chahar Dara district, a Pashtun insurgent stronghold west of Kunduz city where hundreds of fighters travel openly in pickup trucks and demand money and food villagers. But, says local resident Abdul Matin, 28, the militants simply filtered back into the area when the Germans returned to base and police are nowhere in sight. The insurgent efforts accelerated ahead of the Aug. 20 presidential elections, which the Taliban had vowed to disrupt. President Hamid Karzai's running mate, Mohammad Qasim Fahim...
...already been lodged with the Electoral Complaints Commission, more than 150 of which involve large numbers of votes and could affect the final outcome. The commission has launched probes that must be completed before final results can be released, a requirement that could take several weeks. In the Taliban stronghold of Helmand province, where some of the worst fraud is said to have taken place, rolling violence means many of the probes are bound to remain unresolved...
...lesser numbers than the last presidential elections. And that is an ominous change, emblematic of the deepening insecurity that plagues much of the country. The climate of fear was measurable in degrees depending on what part of Afghanistan you were in: higher across the Taliban's southern stronghold, where threats of violence in cities like Kandahar were punctuated by sporadic attacks; and less so toward the center and north, the base of President Karzai's top challenger, Abdullah Abdullah, the former foreign minister. (Watch a video about Abdullah Abdullah...
...people could be legitimately worried. Few would dispute that the Taliban is making inroads into its original stronghold. Militant radio stations in the region are broadcasting anti-election threats, echoed in local mosques, about not going into town. And black turbans, the telltale accessory of the Taliban, roam freely in the suburbs, say locals. On his return to Kandahar over the weekend, Mohammed Amir, a 26-year-old truck driver, says he saw about 20 Taliban setting up a roadside bomb. "They were not scared," he says. "They were not even in a hurry...