WHEN the paratroopers of Chosen Company learnt that their battalion was to be sent to the mountains of southern Afghanistan instead of back to the deserts of Iraq, they heaved a collective sigh of relief.

“I thought it’d be pretty relaxed, that I’d be spending a lot of time in the gym,” Sergeant Timothy Smith recalled wryly. “I figured it was more of a peacekeeping mission than anything.”

But less than a month after setting up camp amid the rugged mountains of Zabul province, the heartland of the Taliban, they walked right into the battle of their lives — an intense hand-to-hand fight with what proved to be a surprisingly tenacious and determined enemy.

Dug into bunkers in an orchard in the remote village of Gazek Kula, armed with machine-guns and rocketpropelled grenade launchers, dozens of Taliban fighters fought for hours with the Americans, about 50 of them to the death.

Weeks later the Americans were in action again, battling for almost 12 hours to oust at least 200 Taliban from the district headquarters in Miana Shin.

“It’s the most intense combat I’ve ever seen,” Sergeant Smith said. “They fight harder than anyone in Iraq ever did. I really never expected anything like this. We all kind of thought the Taliban were gone.”

They were not the only ones. After the Taliban failed to mount the promised campaign of disruption during last year’s presidential election, American military commanders and their Afghan counterparts confidently predicted that the rebel movement was finished. But the intensity of the battles in remote provinces such as Zabul, predominantly in the southeast, have revealed that the Taliban are still a force to be reckoned with, able to count on a steady supply of fresh recruits from the madrassas of Pakistan, where the religious movement was born.

Since the winter snows melted this spring and fighters came out of the mountains, hundreds of Afghans have perished in battles, assassinations and ambushes. Most of the dead have been guerrillas, in fighting that American commanders attribute to a more aggressive search-and-destroy campaign, but many other victims have been government officials and Afghan security forces attacked by the rebels.

Among the dead have been 37 American soldiers, making the past four months the bloodiest period for US forces since they invaded Afghanistan in late 2001 to oust the hard-line regime from power. Commanders who just a few months ago were writing off the rebel force now say that the country should expect a further increase in violence before the parliamentary elections in September.

Although unable to capture and hold territory, the Taliban are now engaged in a fast-paced game of cat and mouse with American and Afghan forces, striking them when the opportunity arises while they pursue a campaign of intimidation against the local population.

The soldiers of the 2nd battalion, 503rd infantry, who arrived here four months ago, have been forced to alter their expectations radically. They are the first to admit that they are astonished by the tenacity of the fighters.

When American forces arrived in Miana Shin district late last month after reports that the Taliban had taken over the town, villagers told them that the guerrillas had warned them to get off the streets and shut up the bazaars because, in the words of one: “We are going to fight the Americans here.”

To the soldiers’ amazement, the Taliban kept up the battle for 12 hours, despite heavy bombardment from aircraft and helicopter gunships raining down artillery on them. “They fought for six or seven hours of airstrikes,” Sergeant Smith said, recalling how the fighters used AK47s and rocket-propelled grenades to try to shoot down the aircraft, hitting two Chinooks and a Black Hawk. “I’ve never seen them so aggressive. It was like Braveheart. They really believe they can shoot them down.”

The 76 Taliban fighters killed that day were almost all aged 18-22, the backbone of the resurgent Taliban army. American intelligence officers say that the young men are recruited either from villages inside Afghanistan and then taken over the border to Pakistan for training, or they are Afghan refugees signed up in their madrassas in Pakistani towns such as Quetta, where senior Taliban openly walk the streets.

They believe that the young men were mostly recruited before winter and trained in time for the spring offensive. But after the battle at Gazek Kula an Afghan informer told the Americans that the Taliban commander who had led that attack had already replenished his depleted troops with recruits from over the border, suggesting a constant flow of fresh blood.

Major Doug Vincent is not surprised. “We’ve killed a bunch of people and that has meant they’ve had to bring in new people,” he said. “But there are new guys coming out of the madrassas all the time.”

That the fight is such an unequal one seems not to bother the fervent young fighters. While their leaders’ aim may be to keep trying to chip away at the Americans with a thousand small cuts, the fighters seem happy just to be in the battle.

American forces recovered a diary from a Taliban fighter in his late teens with the entry: “This is the beginning of my jihad,” followed by a verse from the Koran praising a holy warrior’s effort as more important than its result. The young man was killed after shooting at an entire platoon from the back of a motorbike.

US Commanders say that their aim is no less than to wipe the Taliban from the map by killing all their fighters. But they know that brains behind the insurgency are elsewhere. Sergeant Smith said: “The ones we kill are just the grunts. The leaders aren’t out there pulling triggers.”

That so many are safely out of reach in Pakistani territory, where American troops cannot venture, is a source of frustration for those in the fight, whatever their political leaders might say. “Musharraf says ‘I’m doing a very good job’. Bullshit he is,” spat Sergeant Chris Holbrooke, who was wounded in the battle at Gazek Kula and has been recommended for a decoration. “The border is totally porous. It’s evident that Pakistan doesn’t care about solving the problem. We’d be more than happy to go drop some bombs on their madrassas if they can’t sort it.”

But this is not an option. Instead the Americans have to take the fight to the Taliban inside Afghan territory, scouring the jagged mountain terrain, chasing leads on where Taliban fighters may be meeting and visiting remote villages to try to persuade people to give them information and not support the rebels.

One night last week, Chosen Company set out for a moonlight drive along a rocky riverbed to raid a house where a cell of roadside bomb-makers were believed to be sheltering. As dawn broke they fanned out across the hills to surround the mud walled compound. But when they got there the Taliban were nowhere to be seen.

Questioned by American troops, the villagers denied having seen the rebels in the past few weeks. This usually meant that the Taliban had just left, Captain Eric Gardner said. “They always say they haven’t seen them, but that’s understandable. If the Taliban find out they’ve given us information, they’ll punish them.”

It was the same story in another village, Jaldak, where soldiers were following a tip-off about a planned ambush. Lieutenant Tate Jarrow told the villagers who stood silently round: “We know the Taliban have been here before. We have come to protect you and your people from the threat.” The villagers nodded noiselessly then watched the soldiers drive away.

Earlier that day, a new battalion from the Afghan National Army had arrived in Zabul province to bolster what is expected to be an even harder fight as the elections draw nearer. In the shadow of the shell-pocked 19th century British fort in Qalat, they marched down the streets to be greeted by the governor before they join the Americans in battle. “Now the enemy is on the march,” the governor told them as they lined up before him. “We have to destroy them.”

Their American counterparts hope that they can do just that. “We’ve killed a crap load of them,” Sergeant Smith said. “But it’s like a hydra — you cut off one snake’s head and it grows back again.”

BATTLE TOLL

March 23 US soldiers kill five militants in gun battle, Khost province

March 26 4 US tank crew killed in land mine blast

June 23 76 Taliban fighters die in clash with US forces in Miana Shin

June 28 16 troops die when MH-47D Chinook is shot down near Asadabad

July 4-10 3 US Seal team members dead in Kunar

July 26 US and Afghan forces kill 40 Taliban militants, Uruzgan province

July 28 US and Afghan forces kill three militant fighters near Tirin Kowt

July 29 Airborne attack on southern rebel stronghold leaves 76 insurgents dead

© Copyright 2005 Times Newspapers Ltd.

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