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KABUL // In the shadows of the mountains south-west of Kabul, among the apple orchards and cherry trees of the Tangi valley, lies a shrine that has become a site of pilgrimage and part of local legend.
Young and old travel from across the area to offer their respects and pray at the grave of Fazel Rabi, a Taliban commander killed about two years ago.
He spent his last days in Maidan Wardak province on the run, moving from house to house and village to village as foreign troops hunted him down. Then one night they got their man, catching up with him and, the story goes, finishing him off while he slept in a mosque.
The facts surrounding Mr Rabi’s final moments are impossible to verify and could, like a lot of what shapes this conflict, be half-truth, rumour, myth or propaganda. But what seems beyond doubt is that, despite his death, both he and his fellow rebels are still far from defeated.
Indeed, in the Tangi valley and throughout whole swaths of Maidan Wardak, the cult of martyrdom and the urge to fight an enemy regarded as apostate only appears to be on the rise.
“If they have the idea that by killing one mujahid the ranks of the mujahideen will decrease, that’s wrong. I can tell you that when they kill one mujahid, from one drop of his blood Allah will make a thousand other mujahideen,” said Omari, 20, a member of the Taliban.
“The mujahideen are all resisting with the help of the people who love Allah and want Allah’s law in the world. The work of jihad will continue until the end of days.”
Maidan Wardak is just a 40-minute journey by road to the south-west of Kabul city. In recent years it has become a key battleground in the war because of this very proximity and the fact that one of the country’s main highways runs right through the province.
With military supply convoys routinely attacked there and concern growing about the Taliban’s clear influence in such a strategically important location, hundreds of extra US troops were sent to the area soon after Barack Obama entered the White House.
Security has since improved in the provincial capital, Maidan Shahr, but that has done little to discourage the insurgency.
During a series of interviews conducted there and in Kabul over a two-month period, residents from all sides have claimed that heavy fighting is continuing elsewhere in Maidan Wardak as the rebels adapt their tactics in the face of US reinforcements. The government has denied this.
Omari is from the district of Jaghatu and forms part of a unit of local young Taliban who come from across the province.
Along with his colleagues, he seemed neither remotely tired of the bloodshed nor prepared to accept some kind of peace deal. Indeed, for all of them the only acceptable outcome to the war is an end to the occupation and the creation of a hard-line Islamic state.
Nisar Ahmad Haymat, a fighter from Sayadabad district, also 20, spoke angrily about “Jews and Christians”, and accused foreign troops of being in Afghanistan to kill Muslims and steal its natural resources.
“All the people in our area are happy with the mujahideen. You will not find any man in any village who has a problem with them,” he said.
Although this statement carries the air of exaggeration, the insurgency does enjoy significant support and momentum in large parts of Afghanistan, including Maidan Wardak.
A report published by the International Council on Security and Development, a European-based think tank, revealed that 74 per cent of those surveyed in Kandahar and Helmand provinces believed working with fore ign forces is wrong and 55 per cent accused the US and its allies of being here for their own benefit, to destroy or occupy the country, or to destroy Islam.
The report added that 65 per cent of respondents want the Taliban’s spiritual leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, to join the government.
One resident of Maidan Wardak who does not back the insurgency is an unemployed engineer who asked to remain anonymous out of fear for his life. He lives in the Tangi Valley, the home of the former rebel commander Fazel Rabi.
“The Taliban are not naturally strong, but they have become stronger because the government has not been able to fulfil its promises,” he said.
According to the father of eight, the guerrillas have controlled his area with virtual impunity for the past three years.
“They walk from day to night very freely. The people support them and those that don’t still have to live under their control because they don’t have the power to resist or run away,” he said.
The governor of Maidan Wardak, Halim Fidai, however, painted an entirely different picture of the situation in the province.
He insisted that security has drastically improved and claimed that elders and religious scholars have openly turned against the Taliban. He blamed the media for only reporting isolated incidents of bad news.
“The enemy has been pushed towards the very far flank areas, the mountainous areas, and even there they cannot stay in one place,” he said.
Young and old travel from across the area to offer their respects and pray at the grave of Fazel Rabi, a Taliban commander killed about two years ago.
He spent his last days in Maidan Wardak province on the run, moving from house to house and village to village as foreign troops hunted him down. Then one night they got their man, catching up with him and, the story goes, finishing him off while he slept in a mosque.
The facts surrounding Mr Rabi’s final moments are impossible to verify and could, like a lot of what shapes this conflict, be half-truth, rumour, myth or propaganda. But what seems beyond doubt is that, despite his death, both he and his fellow rebels are still far from defeated.
Indeed, in the Tangi valley and throughout whole swaths of Maidan Wardak, the cult of martyrdom and the urge to fight an enemy regarded as apostate only appears to be on the rise.
“If they have the idea that by killing one mujahid the ranks of the mujahideen will decrease, that’s wrong. I can tell you that when they kill one mujahid, from one drop of his blood Allah will make a thousand other mujahideen,” said Omari, 20, a member of the Taliban.
“The mujahideen are all resisting with the help of the people who love Allah and want Allah’s law in the world. The work of jihad will continue until the end of days.”
Maidan Wardak is just a 40-minute journey by road to the south-west of Kabul city. In recent years it has become a key battleground in the war because of this very proximity and the fact that one of the country’s main highways runs right through the province.
With military supply convoys routinely attacked there and concern growing about the Taliban’s clear influence in such a strategically important location, hundreds of extra US troops were sent to the area soon after Barack Obama entered the White House.
Security has since improved in the provincial capital, Maidan Shahr, but that has done little to discourage the insurgency.
During a series of interviews conducted there and in Kabul over a two-month period, residents from all sides have claimed that heavy fighting is continuing elsewhere in Maidan Wardak as the rebels adapt their tactics in the face of US reinforcements. The government has denied this.
Omari is from the district of Jaghatu and forms part of a unit of local young Taliban who come from across the province.
Along with his colleagues, he seemed neither remotely tired of the bloodshed nor prepared to accept some kind of peace deal. Indeed, for all of them the only acceptable outcome to the war is an end to the occupation and the creation of a hard-line Islamic state.
Nisar Ahmad Haymat, a fighter from Sayadabad district, also 20, spoke angrily about “Jews and Christians”, and accused foreign troops of being in Afghanistan to kill Muslims and steal its natural resources.
“All the people in our area are happy with the mujahideen. You will not find any man in any village who has a problem with them,” he said.
Although this statement carries the air of exaggeration, the insurgency does enjoy significant support and momentum in large parts of Afghanistan, including Maidan Wardak.
A report published by the International Council on Security and Development, a European-based think tank, revealed that 74 per cent of those surveyed in Kandahar and Helmand provinces believed working with fore ign forces is wrong and 55 per cent accused the US and its allies of being here for their own benefit, to destroy or occupy the country, or to destroy Islam.
The report added that 65 per cent of respondents want the Taliban’s spiritual leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, to join the government.
One resident of Maidan Wardak who does not back the insurgency is an unemployed engineer who asked to remain anonymous out of fear for his life. He lives in the Tangi Valley, the home of the former rebel commander Fazel Rabi.
“The Taliban are not naturally strong, but they have become stronger because the government has not been able to fulfil its promises,” he said.
According to the father of eight, the guerrillas have controlled his area with virtual impunity for the past three years.
“They walk from day to night very freely. The people support them and those that don’t still have to live under their control because they don’t have the power to resist or run away,” he said.
The governor of Maidan Wardak, Halim Fidai, however, painted an entirely different picture of the situation in the province.
He insisted that security has drastically improved and claimed that elders and religious scholars have openly turned against the Taliban. He blamed the media for only reporting isolated incidents of bad news.
“The enemy has been pushed towards the very far flank areas, the mountainous areas, and even there they cannot stay in one place,” he said.
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