You servants of infidels. You brought others here to occupy Afghanistan. You brought people to kill innocent Afghans. You are responsible. You motherfuckers. You sons of whores. Half a dozen police officers were clustered around a radio in the headquarters at Pol-e-Khomri, capital of Baghlan province in northern Afghanistan.
The Taliban insults came through loud and clear. The insurgents were only a few miles away. And they had good radios, Motorolas they had stolen from the police. Several policemen were captured by the Taliban. The insurgents seized their weapons and equipment. The policemen were beaten, and certainly humiliated, but they were not killed. That was only sensible on the part of the Taliban: War in Afghanistan has always been marked by changing alliances.
The killing here may be restrained by pragmatism, but the exchange over the radio was bitter enough. You robbed millions of girls of an education. You destroyed this country to please your foreign masters. Why do you hide like women? Why do you hide like foxes? Come out, sons of Jews. The Taliban were about to get their wish. The police in Pol-e-Khomri were preparing an attack.
An offensive was already under way across three other northern provinces. In Baghlan, the main thrust would be against one district, Borka, which was firmly in Taliban hands. The man in charge of the offensive was a soft-spoken and charismatic general named Mohammed Daoud Daoud. He had once been secretary to martyred Northern Alliance leader Ahmed Shah Massoud, whose picture is still displayed everywhere in this part of the country.
Daoud now commanded all Interior Ministry forces in the north, including his own elite force of police commandos, Pamir The government in Kabul was shortly to announce which parts of the country would begin transitioning to Afghan security control, and Daoud had invited my BBC crew β me, my local producer, cameraman, and a security guy β he said, so that we could see how Afghan forces were already conducting their own operations with very little help from NATO.
