Tag Archives: Afghanistan
‘Without us cajoling, pushing or pleading, the Afghan army would sit on their arse and do fuck all’
The Sunday Times The bullet tore into the British sniper’s hip and knocked him to the ground. Surrounded by Taliban fighters after being pinned down by heavy fire inside a mud compound for seven hours, British soldiers suffering from heat exhaustion dragged the wounded corporal from the rooftop and into an inner courtyard. They bent […]
Rise of the Taliban’s kneecap commanders
The Sunday Times The young Taliban commander with a penchant for severing spies’ heads with strands of thin wire dragged 28 of his foot soldiers from a makeshift jail and lined them up against a mud wall at his base. Pacing along the row of handcuffed men, the fresh-faced 21-year-old — surrounded by bodyguards — […]
Nuristan – province in terror as Taliban return
The Sunday Times The Al-Qaeda instructor spent an hour schooling his protégé, a 12-year-old Afghan boy, in the art of suicide bombing. Flanked by retired officers from Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), the Arab militant is said to have shown the boy how to approach his target calmly before pressing the handheld button that would detonate […]
Death threats over inquiry into $1bn bank scandal
Afghanistan’s finance minister has received death threats over his handling of a banking crisis that has mired Kabul’s political elite in accusations of corruption and fraud. Finance Minister Omar Zakhilwal told American and European ambassadors in a meeting earlier this year that the threats on his life had forced him to move members of his […]
Buzkashi Boys
“This is going to be awesome,” boomed the American director through his megaphone. The Afghan horsemen, who were lined up in front of him on a muddy plain close to the outskirts of Kabul, boomed back: “Allah Akbar – God is Great”, as they punched the air with their fists. So began Buzkashi Boys – […]
Miles Amoore 