Inside the Taliban gun battle house

Najibullah is good enough to show us around the house that is now a total ruin and he gives the sense of man unsure whom he is more angry with – Taliban or government?

“What kind of Muslims are these Taliban? If they want to attack the foreigners why not shoot at soldiers? Why did they come here to do this?”

But he gets a good deal more angry when he surveys the damage and says: “Just look at this! The Taliban didn’t wreck this place. All this damage is from government forces.”

The forces – who over five hours killed the three gunmen here after a large expenditure of ammunition.

Najibullah is warmed up now: “I tell you this- if I don’t get proper compensation for all this we are going to go out and block the Jalalabad Road,” he says, gesturing at the main road out of the capital a short distance away.

Truly the house is wrecked. Every window gone – not just the glass but frames too. Wooden banisters shattered, floors pitted and cracked. Holes in the roof, bullet and rocket damage all over the place.

On the roof terrace you see what the three gunmen came for: the warehouses of the Independent  Election Commission (IEC) just 100 metres away. They had line of sight, cover and elevation.

Not enough cover of course. In the hall, on a balcony and in the kitchen the bloodstains and pools of gore where all three met their ends yesterday afternoon.

Mercifully for the family  this large house was empty at the time for it is up for rent.

I decided to draw this information back to Najibullah’s attention and he began speaking more about thanking god and rather less about the coming compensation battle.

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