Al Qaeda's village lifeline

By day, this is a lively village where young and old imbibe rumors along with cups of tea. But when the sun goes down, the town becomes a sea of clandestine activity: Pick-up trucks race into the mountains, carrying supplies to remote Al Qaeda bases.

Many of Zerok's residents are seen as heroes for their role in launching the initial attacks on Soviet-supported Afghan bases in 1979. Now, this remote village, which traditionally divides eastern and southern Afghanistan, is again becoming a nexus for a holy war aimed at ousting the new foreigners. But, in contrast to the situation 22 years ago, there are signs of growing local resistance to the campaign against foreigners.

Twenty-two miles west of the city of Khost, Zerok is set in terrain marked by high mountains, deep valleys, and natural cave complexes covered with bushes and pine trees – excellent hiding places for guerrilla fighters. Until 1990, the village was inaccessible to cars and buses. Most locals still use mules and camels for transportation through the narrow canyons and steep mountains.

In a roadside cafe, decorated with posters bearing photos of former mujahideen commanders, destroyed Russian tanks and black-and-white portraits of the martyrs of the war against Soviets, an old man with a lengthy white beard and a silky golden turban, a Kalashnikov lying under his right leg, says that a return of Afghanistan's exiled king might well calm what he sees as a deteriorating situation. "We respect our traditions, and if our king, Zahir Shah, does not return, then these foreign forces (American and British) are going to seize control of everything," he says.

Two young men seated nearby speak with bitterness toward the American and British troops who are combing nearby villages in search of weapons and Al Qaeda renegades. "They won't dare to come here to Zerok," says one man, drinking tea. "We will teach them a lesson which they will never forget - the same one we taught the Russians."

To the north of Zerok is Shah-e Kot, a series of mountains where highly mobile Al Qaeda guerrillas clashed with US and Afghan forces last month before fleeing here to an area that has far better links to the Pakistani border. By foot, it is only a five-hour walk into the Pakistani tribal areas.

Signs of Al Qaeda's presence are not easy to confirm in Zerok, but at night the village is abuzz with activity. Armed men who largely keep inside mud-walled residential compounds by day feel free to move around at night. In the same cafe where the old man calls for the return of the exiled king, a fighter strapped with grenades and several magazines for his Kalashnikov comes in from the dark, speaking in Arabic, a sure sign that he is not a local ethnic Pashtun from the Zadran tribe.

With several other turbaned fighters, the tall man sits for tea and a quick bite before leaping back into a pickup that speeds up a mountain with its lights off, an apparent effort to disguise its movement from aerial surveillance.

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