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http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0609040143sep04,1,736944.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed

Afghanistan success story loses luster

Taliban unnerves formerly secure sector

By Kim Barker
Tribune foreign correspondent
Published September 4, 2006

<snip>`There are so many of them'

"As soon as they get you, they will kill you," said Barialai, who like many Afghans uses only one name and works just outside the U.S. military base near the provincial capital, also named Ghazni. "There are so many of them here."

On Aug. 25, the Taliban attacked in Muqor, killing one police officer and kidnapping seven people--four contractors building the security wall around the district headquarters, two police officers and one man who worked at a cell phone tower. The four contractors were released after the Afghan company negotiated with the Taliban. The other three haven't been heard from.

The Taliban rarely lets government workers go free. On Monday, three nights after attacking Muqor, Taliban fighters kidnapped two Afghan soldiers in the Qara Bagh district of Ghazni. They used one kidnapped soldier's cell phone to call another soldier, forcing him to listen as the two kidnapped men were tortured to death. snip

The U.S. military now believes that Andar district, just south of Ghazni city, is the source of Taliban activity in five provinces. Taliban recruiters go from house to house demanding either a young man to fight or $100. The government is not in control here; the Taliban is.