Herat

By David Chater in Asia on November 26th, 2009

Like the "Grand Old Duke of York", Commander Suleiman has marched his men to the top of the hill and marched them down again.

The words in the famous English nursery rhyme are believed to refer to a battle in Europe's War of the Roses, but now they can equally be applied to events in the hills surrounding the city of Herat in western Afghanistan - and the war against the Taliban.

Commander Suleiman used to control a police unit patrolling the volatile border with Iran, but defected to the insurgents along with eighty of his men and all of their weapons just over a year ago.

He told Al Jazeera at the time that he'd seen the foreign troops on Afghan soil involved in prostitution and drinking alcohol. He considered it was his duty as a Muslim to wage Jihad against them.

By David Chater in Asia on November 25th, 2009
Photo by EPA

As Noel Coward once observed, mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun.

I've just been walking down a road in Afghanistan where a few weeks ago I'd have been shot on sight by the Taliban. Or worse.

Passing a pylon still smeared in dried blood, I was told it was where a government worker had been decapitated by the insurgents.

Normally this would have quickened my pace. But my companion was reassuring.

He was after all, no less a figure than the chief of police of Herat, a man whose substantial frame would challenge even Friar Tuck or Little John from that other haunt of insurgents – Sherwood Forest.

It also helped that we'd gone for our little drive into the country with about 50 of his merry men - all of them heavily-armed. The front line of the Taliban is being rolled back from the outskirts of this city in western Afghanistan.

By Abdurahman Warsame in Asia on November 20th, 2009

I visited Afghanistan in September for two weeks, spending many days walking the streets of Kabul. I also visited the north and the Western city of Herat.

Only an hour after I landed in Kabul I went to the street, walking for more two hours in one of the busiest areas of Kabul. The street of Kabul are bustling with activity and life, that's until "Iftar" or sunset when Muslims break fast.

These are some of the photos I took from Kabul, Panjshir, Istalif and Herat

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I met this trader in Ka Faroshi market

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By James Bays in Asia on November 12th, 2009
Photo by Reuters

As President Obama decides how many more troops to send to Afghanistan, it is perhaps useful to check the current figures, and also to explain the complicated organisational structure of the military forces.

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