My Day Started With a BANG!

I shuffled to the bathroom at the crack of dawn. I'm still recovering from broken ribs that I collected last week and I'm still not moving briskly. I have to go outside and down a little walkway about twenty feet in our compound to get to the bathroom. The bathroom is in the same building, mind you, it's just not connected to the rooms via an interior access.

I assumed the seat and BANG! An SVBIED (Suicide Vehicle Borne IED) exploded a few blocks away rattling the windows...then the gunfire. And I'm sitting there thinking, man is this bad timing!

As the shooting didn't sound too close I stayed where I was. Completing my mission, I went outside and stood in the rain for a bit and listened to the pitter patter of AK fire. Someone was having a bad morning. I went out to the street and asked our Afghan guards if they knew what got hit. They told me it was near the Safi Landmark Hotel, which is a four-star hotel that opened up in 2006 at the edge of the diplomatic quarter in town. OK, far enough away not to get excited.

It turns out the attack was done by five bad guys this time. The first one blew himself up in the SVBIED. The second one was shot and killed before he could detonate and the other three holed up in a guest house nearby until the police went in and killed them. Luckily it was a Friday and The Prophet's birthday (PBUH). The attack occured before folks really got moving around and the normally busy shops in the area weren't open yet.

The Safi Landmark Hotel
Apparently most of the windows in the front were shattered by the blast.

By noon it was all quiet and things were starting to return to normal with cleanup crews and the fire department hard at work. Looks like about nine civilians (mostly Indians) and three police officers were killed and about thirty-two people wounded. Timing is everything. It could have been much worse just two hours later.

The pictures below are of the scene afterwards by Reuters photographer Ahmad Masood.

©Reuters/Ahmad Masood

©Reuters/Ahmad Masood

©Reuters/Ahmad Masood

©Reuters/Ahmad Masood

Yes, I'm Still Alive and In Afghanistan

First off, let me thank all who've enquired after my health during my long silence. Second, no good excuse for the silence except perhaps exhaustion...mostly mental. Every week I've thought I'd post and then simply didn't. So, here's the latest update.

The Queen's Palace at dawn.
The wee sliver of the moon is visible in the upper right.
Yes, we got snow...and rain...and snow.
Surprisingly, mild winter overall in Kabul,
though last week was pretty cold.

This is what you call a "bad air" day. This is the kind of air you get when you don't have natural gas, Western style coal-fired power plants, or nuclear power plants to provide heat and electricity to a city of almost 5 million people. There is some hydroelectric, but it can't handle the load. Current wind and solar technology can't produce enough per $ spent, which for the Afghans is a critical decision point. There's also the issue of security. One can secure a couple hundred acres of a nuclear or coal-fired plant. One can't secure a sprawling solar or wind array.

Similiar shot on a different day, but the point I'm going to show here is how fast things can change. This picture is at 09:50 in the morning.

This picture of the same mountains at about 1:30 in the afternoon...after a stiff breeze blew through.

Oranges are the current fruit dejour.

Old Mamma Dog.
She's ready to drop another litter in this picture.
Which she promptly did the same evening (this past Tuesday).

Manchester United seems to be a popular team around here.
I've seen at least six different vehicles with ManU pillows and other decorations.

As construction advances down this main street, these street vendors are getting forced off to side-streets. Note the orange back hoe behind the cigarette stand.

We've been calling this billboard "The Love Doctor".
If you can't read Dari, you can come up with all sorts of interpretations.
It's really about the importance of getting a check-up.
Note that the Paula Abdul look-alike on the left doesn't seem too amused.

On a slightly more serious note, this is the building gutted during the Taliban attack downtown last month. Nine bad guys killed, one captured, two perhaps weren't keen on collecting the virgins and may have escaped. Surprisingly few civilian casualties given the bad guys had suicide vests and detonated two suicide VBIEDs (vehicle borne IED) in the middle of the day when the streets were full of people. Most of the good-guy casualties were the Afghan security guys. We figured the bad guys were expending ammo before the weather got crappy, which it did about a week later.

The Day After

The Election has passed and votes are being counted.

Somewhere between 40 - 50 percent of the eligible voters cast ballots and that's under threat of dismemberment (the Taliban threatened to cut fingers off) and death (the Taliban threatened to kill people) and under fire (rocket attacks, gunmen and suicide bombers).

Despite all the doom and gloom forecasts, things weren't really all that scary yesterday. The Taliban propaganda machine (the Western media) failed to scare away voters.

So now we wait while votes are counted. We should give a nod to the millions of courageous Afghans who braved death and dismemberment to exercise their right to vote.

The Afghan people are the winners, even if the election was imperfect.

Afghanistan Presidential Election Tomorrow

Tomorrow (20 August) is election day in Afghanistan and these are interesting times. In the last week we’ve have several rocket attacks and two suicide VBIEDs (vehicle borne improvised explosive devices). In both VBIED attacks the majority of the casualties were innocent Afghans, including children.

None of this was unexpected, but the suicide VBIED attack in front of ISAF (International Security and Assistance Force) Headquarters was probably preventable and the result of lax security, or non-existent security, along one road leading into the "Green Zone."

At least one news outlet talked about how the Presidential compound was “targeted” in a rocket attack early yesterday morning. Let’s set the record straight. The safest place to be during a rocket attack is to be the target. Anything within about a 2 kilometer circle is a little iffier. Getting hit by a rocket is rather like the old Monty Python joke about the chances of having a 16-ton weight hit you in the head. You can’t worry about it.

Last night passed peacefully, but we are all expecting a little more excitement today and tomorrow. Despite the threats, the UN monitors are expecting a pretty solid turnout. A good turnout would be psychological victory over the Taliban. Time will tell.

UPDATE Afternoon 19 August:
The media are really spinning this one up. Today three guys tried to rob a bank downtown. The MSNBC post online described the area as "still in ruins" from the Civil War. Clearly the writer has never been there, I drive past the area on most days and it isn't in ruins. In fact there are three hotels and several government ministries near that bank.

They then connect the Taliban claim that there are twenty guys with suicide vests in town to the three because a Taliban spokesman said five of the twenty battled police. Well, the Taliban have a habit of claiming any violence as their handiwork, even when it's just ordinary criminal activity. By doing so it makes them look like they have more "soldiers" than they really have.

So if these guys at the bank were wearing suicide vests, why didn't any of them detonate when the police stormed the building? That would have been the perfect time to cause a lot of casualties.

It's far more likely that these were just ordinary thugs trying to capitalize on the fact that most people were home today since it's Independence Day. Had they been aiming for a big bloody splash, they would have hit yesterday when there were more people around.

Important note: The Afghan police don't let these scenarios drag out for very long and they aren't squeamish about a fight. Any such attack is a suicide attack because the police aren't interested in taking prisoners.

Election Billboard
Assuring the populace that the Army and the Police will protect voters.

Afghan Sense of Humor -- They Have it BAD!

This past week saw April Fools Day. And believe it or not, a couple of my translators really got into it. While I was out of the office at a meeting, the two younger guys told the other two interpreters that I had received complaints about all the translators' performance. They were drinking too much chai (tea) and talking too much. In addition to that, their translations took to long. Since they were being so unproductive, we were letting a couple of them go and before lunch, the letters would be delivered.

After I returned to the office from my meeting, the room was deathly quiet. This is really serious stuff afterall. Our interpreters make more money than an Afghan Major General, so losing this job would be a huge blow to their families. The two younger guys kept looking over their computer monitors grinning at me, knowing the other two were really sweating. They had already prepped the envelopes and placed them in my drawer. Yeah, they got me in on it.

When I next left the office to go down the hall to talk to the Afghan Colonel I work with, I grimly handed the two older guys the envelope and walked out. The scene was reported to me when I came back. With downcast faces and trembling hands they opened the envelopes and read the letters.

APRIL
FOOOOOOOLS!

When I got back to the office they were all still laughing. All in all the rest of day was not very productive because jokes were played at each other's expense until we went home.

This week's Kabul Scenes

Early Morning Soccer
As we drive past this field at 6AM each day, the game is in full swing.
Exception is rainy mornings.

Sisters Walking to School
With the start of the New Year and more daylight, school is in full swing.

Gathering the Flock of Wee Penguins
If we abandon these people again, scenes like this will be history.
The Taliban don't think girls should be educated.

Talented Lad
Sign painter on the way to a job.

Blogging buddy Momcat didn't think people were smiling enough on the first day of spring. Well, I'm here to prove that Afghans do smile...alot!

Unemployed Taliban?
Well, ok so this guy isn't smiling,
but it's probably because of all the other people smiling.
Maybe he's an unemployed Taliban reminiscing about the good old days
when he could beat women in public.

Are you looking at me?
Well, maybe a bit of a grimace.
No really, he's smiling.
When he saw the camera he pointed to himself to get his picture taken.

There is a sizable Hindu/Sikh population in Kabul.
I'd say he's contemplative. He might be smiling, but
with that dead animal on his face it's hard to tell.

SMILES!
Pretty mommy with new wee one.
Note the cell phone in her hand.

Happy Hazara!
He's pulling a cart with about a ton of rugs,
but he smiled for the camera.

Something really funny in those coconuts!
I almost had to break out the shades for this smile!

Two smiles!
The woman on the right was a good six foot two!
Note the ever-present cell phone.

Aw come on!
You mean you can't see her smile?

Diversions

Just because there is a war on and the bad guys are about to take Kabul, is no reason to not have a good time. Although General Order Number One does not allow us to drink booze or get nekked with the opposite sex, we can on occassion enjoy the simple things in life...like breakfast on a mountain top.

It's a tough climb, but the scenery isn't too bad.
Umm, you'll see what I mean by that a little later.

The view is worth the climb.
The "fog" you see in the low areas is actually smoke from the fires used to heat homes.

Though this was early December, the sun warmed everyone quickly.

Breakfast served by an Irishman.

A wee spot of hot tea and and some cakes. Our Colonel on the left.
He's recently ended his tour and has returned to England.

The Irishman, the Colonel and the Major on the left have all returned home.
The Regimental Sergeant Major in the Army sweatshirt is from Glasgow.
When he speaks one of our Air Force guys frequently asks for a translation.

Breakfast on the edge.
One wrong move for those at the edge and it's a thousand foot drop.

UK Embassy Babe.
Remember when I talked about the good view going up?
It was the south end of this lady...a real motivator to keep climbing!

After the climb, several dead Taliban were discovered.
We presume they died of heart attacks.
Some of the guys in our party almost perished too.

I always find the way back down to be harder than going up.

Destroyed tank from the Afghan Civil War.
That was the period betweent the Soviet departure
and the arrival of the Taliban.
From inside the turret if you look through the barrel, you will see that it is sighted on the King's Palace.

The ladies took possession.

Security Alert!

As the weather warms, we are reminded that the bad guys will be coming out of their caves to cause trouble. The threats are very specific...or so we are told.

After a recent late winter snow storm, this infiltrator was apprehended by alert Afghan security forces.

Intelligence indicates that there are several suicide vehicle borne improvised explosive devices (SVBIEDs)in town. Intelligence further reports that the most likely vehicle is a Toyota Corolla...like this one.
Um...that narrows it down to about 50,000 vehicles in Kabul.

Sucurity Update 2!
Sources have confirmed SVBIEDs will likely be white Toyota Corollas with Kabul plates.
Better...only about 12,000 of those in Kabul.

Security Update 3!
New intelligence indicates the attackers are planning on using a yellow taxi with Kabul plates. Wonderful...only about 20,000 of those in town.

Note: earlier reports are also still in effect. That means the white Toyota Corolla on the left and the one parked on the right, visible between the van and taxi are still "in play."
The red Toyota Corolla visible on the left is another possibility.
And if you look through the window of the SUV in front of the center taxi you see...ANOTHER TAXI!
But you should be ok if you avoid crowded narrow streets...

...and traffic circles...

...road intersections...

...and places taxis (and white Toyota Corollas) congregate...like alongside the road.

Since the main targets are thought to be security forces, it is best to avoid Coalition military vehicles...especially on narrow roads...

...and Afghan Security Forces vehicles.

Security Update 4!
Flower-covered jaunty carts do not appear to be a threat at this time.
I'm so relieved...there's maybe a dozen in town.