Word: tribalized
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...signs that Afghanistan's good guys and bad guys alike believe the royal leader may possess a singular power to unify the fractured nation. A European official with extensive experience in the region said the ex-monarch's popular support is remarkably strong - and cuts across ethnic and tribal lines: "He reminds people of a period of peace, while everything has been war. And most of all, the Afghan people want peace. He is a figure of great moral - and thus political - stature...
Those difficulties won't be easy to confront. Taliban and al-Qaeda forces are regrouping in pockets around the country, and there are simmering feuds among tribal and ethnic factions. "The current conditions are not an ordinary state of affairs," Zahir Shah concedes. "But today, we can say there is no civil war in Afghanistan." There was disturbing evidence this month that the fragile internal peace may not hold, as U.S. commanders were reportedly forced to modify their assault in the region of Gardez because rival warlords fighting alongside the Americans were said to be ready to clash over...
...rate of U.S. bombing has declined, errors have dropped. With the remnants of al-Qaeda and Taliban on the run in eastern 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...
...crane, with its stately neck and stirring wings, can claim royal bloodlines. In ancient China, Prince Yi of Wie gave cranes the rank of civil servants and generals, while in Japan they were considered sages and became the symbol of peace in the aftermath of war. Australian Aborigines patterned tribal rituals after the cranes' elegant dances, and in India they are considered the holy messengers of Vishnu; they are the birds of heaven...
...Operation Anaconda, the offensive in the eastern mountains, has met strong resistance. Al-Qaeda suffered heavy losses, but it was bolstered by reinforcements after local leaders "called a jihad," said U.S. Major General Frank Hagenbeck, the operation's commander. Local rivalries have further frustrated the coalition. Padshah Khan, a tribal leader allied to the U.S., wants control of Gardez, the provincial capital, and has threatened to attack rival allied Afghans who hold the city. The international peacekeeping force in Afghanistan also suffered its first fatalities last week. Three Danes and two Germans died while defusing missiles. The leaders of Denmark...