Word: uruzgan
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...terrible mistake has been made," says Uruzgan businessman Abdul Ghani. All the dead, including the twin leaders of the military commission Haji Sanagul and Qadous Khan Jahadwal, had been appointed by the provincial government. "They were not Taliban, they were a military commission working with (Interim Prime Minister) Hamid Karzai," says schoolteacher and Uruzgan elder Farou Khan. The men slaughtered in Sharzam High School had been loyal to Hamid Karzai's interim government. Karzai's brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai, says he knew six or seven of them personally. Qadous Khan Jahadwal, he says, "had been with us for 23 years...
...hard to see how the largest ground operation by U.S. forces in Afghanistan may may have turned into a friendly-fire tragedy. All of Uruzgan province had been strong Taliban country. And Uruzgan village was a Taliban nursery - hundreds, if not thousands, of Taliban soldiers volunteered from this district (though villagers claim all were forcibly conscripted). Even now, unrepentant Taliban commanders and their troops have returned to seek refuge in its remote mountain passes...
...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...
...Ahmadullah was close to Taliban Health Minister Mohammed Abbas Akhund, a founding member of the movement who hailed from Uruzgan province. A former mayor of Kandahar and later Attorney General, Abbas commanded the Taliban's Baghlan force. Now, says the secretary to Kandahar's new pro-American governor, Abbas is hiding with his military force about 5 miles from Uruzgan village. And at least three other top Taliban are reputed to be sheltering in mountains near the site of the U.S. attacks...
...raid on Uruzgan appears, ironically, to have helped Younis. A rogue warlord with strong links to the Taliban and opponent of the new government in Kabul, he saw his local opposition wiped out by U.S. forces - and appears to have inherited the most formidable arsenal in the district, to boot. Says Bari Gul, brother of one of the pro-government commanders slain in the raid, "All the weapons (collected at the school) have been taken by the commander who was ruling by force...