Word: taj
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...rivalries of local warlords, which in Afghanistan are two sides of the same coin. The Americans have always known that Paktia province, where the fighting is taking place, is bandit country. (Ironically, the new governor of the province, and Karzai's voice there, is an American citizen: Taj Muhammad Wardak spent the past decade in Los Angeles.) Shah-i-Kot was a well-known base for the mujahedin fighting Soviet forces in the 1980s; indeed, the Soviets never took the valley. The soft shale on the ridges is ideal for the construction of caves. One cave, visited last week...
...Afghanistan, the special forces have had a crash course in the complexities of local tribal feuds. U.S. soldiers are far more circumspect about calling in air strikes. "When we get information about Taliban or al-Qaeda, we check it three, maybe four times before we act," says Gardez governor Taj Mohammed Wardak. Americans are also training local militias to hunt al-Qaeda. In Gardez alone, the special forces have recruited more than 200 men, giving them better guns, warm clothes, food and $200 a month. (In all, Western diplomats in Kabul tell TIME, the Americans have more than...
...rivalries of local warlords, which in Afghanistan are two sides of the same coin. The Americans have always known that Paktia province, where the fighting is taking place, is bandit country. (Ironically, the new governor of the province, and Karzai's voice there, is an American citizen: Taj Muhammad Wardak spent the past decade in Los Angeles.) Shah-i-Kot was a well-known base for the mujahedin fighting Soviet forces in the 1980s; indeed, the Soviets never took the valley. The soft shale on the ridges is ideal for the construction of caves. One cave, visited last week...
...capture by the U.S. and its allies. That had caused consternation among local tribal leaders already made edgy by a bloody, unrelated power struggle between rival warlords. Shortly before the battle at Shahi Kot began, Mansoor had reportedly been negotiating terms for his surrender with tribal elders sent by Taj Mohammed Wardak, the new governor of Paktia, the province where Shahi Kot is located. Wardak wanted Mansoor to leave his mountain base, expel his al-Qaeda guests (the governor believes they number about 60) and declare support for Hamid Karzai's interim government in Kabul. But those talks broke down...
...peered into that weird place that appears to sell nothing but fans (kitchen ones). I stopped in a tattoo parlor as three teenage girls from Queens, in J. Lo jackets and spray-on jeans, hovered nervously at the counter. I wondered whether to buy a new car radio at Taj Mahal Stereo or at the place that advertises WORLD LARGEST SPEAKER SELECTIONS--SE HABLA ESPANOL. Then lunch: Dim sum, falafel or Tex-Mex tortillas? Hell, let's go for a carnivorous selection from the food cart that sells hot dogs, gyros, shish kebabs and Italian sausages, all of them...