There's History In Those Hills
Two months ago, Arab and Chechen fighters showed up at the village of Shah-e-Kot and warned residents to leave or risk being caught up in fighting. Village elders accepted the advice. Now the village is the scene of some of the heaviest clashes of the Afghan war.
"They told people: 'If you want to leave or stay it is up to you,'" said Roseuddin, a farmer from Shah-e-Kot. "'But we're staying in those caves because they were ours in the holy war against Russia,'" referring to war against the Soviets in the 1980s.
CBS News Correspondent Richard Roth reports that the Taliban and al Qaeda fighters filtered into the area for weeks. Now they're hiding out in a network of caves and snow-capped ridges that coalition forces are struggling to destroy.
The history in those hills is known to both sides. It's the same complex of caves where anti-Soviet guerillas were based in the 1980s, and from where they punished the Soviet army.
The al Qaeda fighters were clearly planning for a protracted siege. They brought with them hundreds of bags of flour and sugar, mortars and cannons.
The Chechens also brought about 100 family members — women and children prepared for a last stand, Roseuddin said.
Yet no one seems quite sure how big a force the coalition's facing. The Pentagon's original estimate was 300 to 500. Afghan commanders think there may be 1,000 or more.
Roseuddin appeared nervous about telling his story. As he spoke in nearby Surmad, he watched a U.S. reconnaissance plane overhead. He looked warily every time an Afghan walked by.
"Everyone is afraid to talk to foreigners," his friend Kadr Shah explained. "Refugees from Shah-e-Kot think if anyone finds out they have information, the Americans will grab them and take them away."
Just before the attack began last weekend, Roseuddin said, he returned to his village pulling a donkey loaded with wood to hide "property" he had gone to retrieve.
He wouldn't identify the property, but Shah said Roseuddin wanted to retrieve his Kalashnikov rifles — an essential possession for an Afghan man.
Roseuddin said he found the number of Arabs, Chechens and others had dwindled from about 2,000 in December to around 600.
Those who remained appeared well-armed with mortars, small cannons, heavy machine guns and assault rifles.
Although most were Arabs and Chechens, he said there were some Afghan Taliban and "just a couple" of Pakistanis.
Roseuddin said they were under the command of an Afghan Taliban, Saif Rahman, nephew of the former Taliban agriculture minister Latif Mansour.
Both Rahman and Mansour were known to have close links with Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda network.
There has been no suggestion that either bin Laden or the former Taliban supreme leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, is at Shah-e-Kot.
Shah, a bus driver who fought against Soviet invaders, said "thousands and thousands of Arabs" had come to this area after Kabul fell to the U.S.-backed northern alliance Nov. 13.
From Kabul, they made their way to Kandahar, the Taliban stronghold. After the Taliban evacuated Kandahar on Dec. 7, they headed northeastward toward the rugged mountains here, he said.
"Some of the same men I took to Kandahar suddenly I saw them here again," Shah said. "But many have left."
Shah said many of the foreign fighters who had sought refuge in the area sent their families away starting in January, paying smugglers to elude Pakistani border guards.
Pakistan sealed its borders with Paktia province at the start of the offensive to prevent al-Qaeda fighters from finding sanctuary in the lawless area along the border.