Word: taliban
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...governor's compound who asked not to be named. "You'll go somewhere once, twice - and the third time you're dead.'' The compound, with its neatly tended rose garden, is ringed by high walls, double checkpoints, machine-gun emplacements and blast barriers, and guarded by 50 men. The Taliban mostly avoid face-to-face battles with ISAF and Afghan forces, preferring ambushes and stealth attacks with suicide bombs and roadside mines. So the troops patrol in heavily armored vehicles or in jeeps bristling with machine guns...
...have a 370-man Reconstruction Task Force and a Special Operations Group made up of about 300 Special Air Service troops and Army commandos. The ISAF work alongside a steadily growing Afghan National Army unit whose base sits beside Camp Holland. As well as ferreting out and fighting the Taliban, the coalition forces - which also include U.S. soldiers serving under Operation Enduring Freedom - train local soldiers and police and undertake civic improvement projects...
...Uruzgan is a longtime Taliban stronghold. "[Taliban leader] Mullah Omar grew up here," says former Dutch battlegroup commander Jelte Groen. "It was the first province to fall to the Taliban in 1994." With its rugged terrain, long history of opium growing, and network of smugglers' trails, Uruzgan "provides a safe haven for drug transport and moving troops," Groen adds. "So it is a very crucial area...
...Taliban territory Beyond Tarin Kowt, the ISAF's footprint is much lighter. Its second base, Camp Hadrian, with 400 troops, is at Deh Rewood, 50 km to the west. Two forward operating bases are also within 40 km of the capital. Four small U.S. bases lie further out, but beyond these secure zones, say locals, the Taliban have almost free rein...
...Gizab, about 100 km northeast of Tarin Kowt, the Taliban have established Sharia law and made the town a way-station for opium smugglers. ISAF patrols have not ventured into the town for a couple of years. The number of Taliban fighters in Uruzgan is unknown - estimates range from 300 to 3,000 - but there is no doubting the effectiveness of their terror tactics. In November, on the vital highway between Tarin Kowt and Kandahar, capital of the adjacent province, five Afghan police manning Australian-built checkpoints were killed and their corpses strung up as a warning against collaboration with...