Latest Al Qaeda recruits: Afghans seeking revenge

"Hizb-I Islami has the expertise to bring together those who have lost family members, to equip them with weapons, to train them, and to provide transportation to Kabul, where they can carry out their attacks," says Gen. Khial Baz Sherzai, the military chief of Khost Province.

Countering this threat is a problem, General Sherzai says, because local Afghan forces don't have sufficient manpower or weapons to stop infiltration by Hizb fighters. "We have a 180-kilometer border with Pakistan, and everybody can easily enter here and carry out what they want. We have security only in the city of Khost, not the province of Khost."

Afghan intelligence sources say that most of these suicide attackers are making their way to Kabul, where US soldiers, aid workers, diplomats, and even journalists are easy to find. Just three weeks ago, in a crowded market in Kabul, a young Afghan teenager threw a grenade into a jeep full of American soldiers. The soldiers were severely injured.

Speaking broadly about recent attacks on US soldiers, including the grenade attack, Major Steve Clutter, the US military spokesman at Bagram Air Base, said the attacks were considered serious, but showed the current weaknesses of Al Qaeda and its allies.

"Clearly there are people who have bad intent, and they don't like the way things are going in the war on terrorism," he told reporters recently. "They appear to be acts of a desperate foe."

Details about the Afghan teenager are sketchy. Kabul police say the boy, who remains in US custody at Bagram Air Base, gave his name as Amir Jan and said that he comes from the Ishmail Khel district in the Khost Province. Khost provincial officials say they don't believe he comes from their province.

But in the Ishmail Khel district, in the village of Mandozai - a scattering of mud-walled homes - a senior family member and neighbors close to the family say the boy under arrest in Kabul is Abdullah Jan, son of Abdul Karim, and brother of Nasratullah Noori, who was killed in the December mosque bombing.

Locals describe Abdullah Jan as a smart, pious 11th grader who prayed five times a day and learned English in a madrassah in Pakistan. Before the war, Abdullah showed no concern for politics. But after the death of his brother Nasratullah, he increasingly talked with local mullahs of plans for revenge.

In the guestroom of their home, ringed with cushions, Abdullah Jan's family admit to visitors that they lost one son to the mosque bombing. But Abdullah Jan's father vehemently denies that his son was involved in any attack on Americans. "I have a son named Abdullah Jan, but he is not the one who carried out the attacks," says Abdul Karim, a local farmer.

If Karim is cautious, it may be because of the experience of the family of Abdul Malik, the 18-year-old who killed the CIA agent. When Abdul Malik escaped to Pakistan, local Afghan authorities arrested two of his young cousins in an attempt to pressure the family to bring him back.

One of those cousins, Salahuddin, says he was tortured and beaten by Afghan intelligence agents during 10 months of captivity in Kabul. "The worst thing was our Afghan secret police, the 3rd Directorate of Intelligence," says Salahuddin, who has only one name. "They would give us electric shocks to compel us to confess.

"But I really liked the Americans. They were not as cruel as I thought they would be. They were very friendly. They offered me a Pepsi. Even when they would beat us, it was like they were joking."

The elder Mohammad says vengeance has only added to his family's sorrow, and given sorrow to another family in America, thousands of miles away.

"I am sorry for the killed American," he says. "I remember the wife of my brother crying when she lost her son. Now the same must be happening with the mother or sister of the American killed here. The pain is the same, and we share it with that family."

Page: 1 | 2