Been Offline for a Bit

I've been offline for a time, busy doing other things. Since the last post, two Westerners were shot in front the DHL office where they worked, but that was a case of an employee going "postal" though the media tried to speculate that it was indicative of the "Taliban closing in."

Then we had a suicide bombing at the Ministry of Information and Culture, which is located at a busy market intersection right across the road from the "Bin Laden Mosque" from two posts ago. We drive past both the Ministry and the mosque almost every day. By the way, the association of that mosque with Bin Laden is actually an urban legend.

The Information Ministry was a target because it was a government building and it had very light secturity...past tense. There are now blast walls and more security personnel, so it is unlikely that that particular style of attack will work again on this particular office.

Finally, we had a French woman abducted late last week. An Afghan who tried to help her was shot to death. The other French person and their driver escaped. The Taliban issued and immediate vehement denial of being involved.

This in part because shooting the British woman (the story in the last post) turned into a public relations backlash for them. The woman was very popular with the locals and hundreds attended her funeral. Local mullahs denounced the killing and the killers at the funeral.

Without further comment, here's a new batch of pictures.

Sunrise over the demining camp.

Hindu Temple in Kabul
Listened to my driver, a Tajik who doesn't like Pashtuns.
Actually, this is the tomb of Timur Shah Durrani (1748 - 1793)
His father, Ahmed Shah Durrani is considered the father of modern Afghanistan.

School boys horsing around. Just like at home.

Massoud Day was in September.
Massoud posters are up around town all year.

"What do you mean you don't want to haggle?"

A corner bus stop.

A cookie shop.
Just starting to fill the window displays.

Hiding behind the bananas.
The military term is "banana defilade."

Location, location, location.