Word: talib
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...recent Shah-i-Kot offensive, far from deterring the opposition, has emboldened it. Applauded in the West as a victory for the international coalition, the operation has been celebrated by Kandahar Talibs as an American failure. "How many bodies are there?" asks a former Talib, mocking U.S. claims of a major victory and citing eyewitness accounts of only a few Taliban and al-Qaeda corpses. "With all their power, the Americans could not capture our fighters," he says...
...graves. Devotees recite the Koran throughout the night. The paralyzed, ill and blind flock to the site seeking miracle cures, which many claim to receive. Men mumble, repeating scripture until they fall into a trance, swaying and convulsing, talking in tongues. "Do not speak English here," says a Talib accompanying a TIME correspondent. "They will kill you the instant they know you are a foreigner. These people are so angry...
...Defense Minister Mullah Obaidullah Akhund, who is thought to be in hiding, has issued a secret call to arms. True or not, the tale is meeting with approval in many quarters. "For the moment, we need food and more weapons, but we are willing to fight," says a former Talib. "When America goes, we will take back Kandahar in three days...
...like in many other regions in today's post-Taliban Afghanistan, the local political infighting often intersects with charges and counter-charges of Talib connections. Take warlord Mohammed Younis, for example. "He was saying he was chief of this district, he was saying this district is mine. He wanted to take it by force," says Uruzgan shura chairman Haji Sofi Mohammed Halim. Days before the U.S. attack, Younis had lost out in acrimonious local power struggle. But it may have been his possible links to very senior Taliban leaders that help explain the events at Uruzgan...
...court last week at a brief proceeding called an identity hearing. It was an appropriate name, since deciding who he is will determine whether he should go to prison for the rest of his life. Maybe he is Abdul Hamid, a name he used when he was a Talib, allegedly one who conspired to kill Americans. Or maybe he's John Walker, a suburban '90s kid who lit out for distant territories both geographic and religious, seeking himself (and taking his mother's maiden name) after his parents' estrangement. In his most recent incarnation, at the hearing, he was John...