Down And Dirty
MixxIt was the colors that Hamad Alokzai noticed. The gaunt Afghan, with a beard like matted wool and gaudy silver rings on his fingers, had returned to Afghanistan from exile in Quetta, Pakistan, to check on his former comrades. On Thursday night he sat with his old Talibana href="javascript:void(0)" class="toReprints" onClick="RightslinkPopUp('Down And Dirty', '10/22/2001', 'Michael Elliott;Hannah Bloch/Islamabad, Paul Quinn-Judge/the Kabul front, Hannah Beech/the Taloqan front, Helen Gibson/London, Terry McCarthy/Peshawar, Tim McGirk/Quetta, Ghulam Hasnain/Spin Boldak, Michael Fathers/Tashkent, Mark Thompson and Douglas Wall', '1001028'); return false;">Reprints
Though Kandahar's hospitals were filled with casualties, the only troops killed, Alokzai said, were boys "left behind at the airport as night watchmen." Where once 10,000 Taliban supporters had gathered to pray in the Halqa Cherif mosque, now fewer than a hundred did. In the town, the Taliban's exodus left its Arab sympathizers at the mercy of the townsfolk; at least three were murdered for their watches and motorcycles. But the Taliban was preparing to fight. On just one day, more than 45 trucks left Kandahar for redoubts in the high mountains. They were filled wicript>
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