Attacks rally Taliban's confidence, supporters

The vast majority of Taliban fighters are not the veterans of the 1979-1989 war against Soviet occupation. Rather, the young religious students, aged between 16 and 30, are often their orphaned sons, many of them steeled in an ideology of holy war by teachers who fought the Soviets.

Filling out their ranks, sometimes in commanding positions or fighting in separate units, are Afghanistan's foreign fighters, who are mostly Arab but also include Chechens and Pakistanis. Most of these outside fighters have been trained in guerrilla tactics at Afghan military camps, loosely modeled on the US's own commando schools.

Indeed, in Kabul, Arab fighters - such as the commander riding the bus to Logar - are more visible than ever. They have switched from wearing traditional Afghan clothing to new green and black commando uniforms. They sport caps instead of turbans. These foreign fighters, estimated at from 5,000 to 15,000 in total, form what Western military experts call the "sharp end" of the Taliban fighting forces.

The US Department of Defense estimates that there are about 20,000 Taliban troops stationed along the front lines, north of Kabul, fighting against the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance.

Al Qaeda loyalists, backed by Kashmiri mujahideen, most of them from Pakistan, help hold onto the heights to the south and east of the ex-Soviet airbase at Bagram. Pentagon officials say that 10,000 Taliban troops are currently dug into a World War I-style labyrinth of trenches in which heavy guns and even tanks are buried up to their barrels. The only thing coming and going from this six-mile-long Taliban front line are Toyota pick-up trucks, not easily identified from the air as "military targets."

"Only a chemical attack could easily dislodge these fighters from this network of trenches," says an Afghan who has spent time on the front line.

In other strategic areas, such as inside the Ainak Copper mine near the Logar airfield, south of Kabul, Arab fighters have based themselves inside the mine itself. Airstrikes last week produced several casualties in the area. Residents witnessed several Arab fighters being transported by ambulance away from the mine.

"Around 300 Arabs are inside the mine on any given day," says a baker, who supplies loaves of bread to the mine fighters.

"They have strong communications links, including satellite telephones with video devices and also a television. Before all this, Osama used to drop in for a night or two to talk with the commander, a Yemeni."

Despite the Taliban's preparations for an extended fight, some Afghans still quietly express doubt about the regime's staying power. They say they are hoping for a quick end to Afghanistan's latest war.

As yet another US air raid begins in Kabul, a shopkeeper standing beside his bicycle looks up into the skies. "Do it! Do it! Quick and get it over with. Free us from this cage!"

A former Kabul Times reporter traveled to Jalalabad and Kabul, Afghanistan, and contributed to this report.

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