At 6 p.m. each day, as the city darkens and the Taliban police begin enforcing a curfew that bars civilians from the street, the estimated 1 million residents return home, gathering with loved ones to wait for the bombs.
They wait in darkness. The Taliban has cut electricity in the city to eliminate lights that might guide American pilots. Families that use lanterns and candles–common implements after 20 years of war–string thick black curtains over their windows, blinding them from what is happening outside.
The progress of the raids can be tracked through all five senses.
Jets are heard overhead, followed by the staccato sound of tens of thousands of rounds of anti-aircraft munitions being fired from the ground. If the flash of light is missed, the bomb detonations are louder than any before in the war-ravaged city. For those who live near a military base, Kabul’s airport or the television station, the ground shudders beneath their feet. The smell of acrid smoke marks the raid’s completion.
“In the places where the bombs land, people scream,” said Wahid Nawabi, a 27-year-old shopkeeper who fled the city Tuesday with his wife and three children. “In parts of the city, the people are quiet.”
Interviews with a half-dozen refugees who have fled to rebel-controlled territory here, north of Kabul, create a picture of life in the Afghan capital under siege. Nights are the worst. Food is available and affordable, but escape is not.
Although the refugees differ over the number of civilians killed, over public sentiment toward the U.S. and over the strength of the Taliban regime, they are consistent on one point: The people who remain are only the desperately poor. And, if they want to overthrow the Taliban, they are helpless to do so.
“Attacking the government with your bare hands is impossible,” said Alahbaksh, 50, an auto parts salesman who fled the city Wednesday with 33 relatives. “It will fall only if there is a ground attack.”
They also unanimously warned that civilian casualties would turn public opinion there against the U.S. “The people want a change in the government,” Alahbaksh said. “They’re very afraid of bombs hitting civilians.”
The accounts of civilians arriving here, in territory controlled by the rebel Northern Alliance, are inherently biased. Taliban supporters are unlikely to flee to land controlled by a group that has been battling the Taliban for six years.
While the refugees’ descriptions of public sentiment may be suspect, they paint a consistent picture of living conditions in Kabul.
People lack electricity and running water, but that is nothing new in Afghanistan after two decades of civil war.
The people of Kabul are not isolated. Battery-operated short-wave radios are ubiquitous and give Afghans access to local stations, Iranian radio, the BBC and the Voice of America.
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One sharp noticeable change in Kabul is a decrease in soldiers and policemen in the daytime. “I haven’t seen Taliban on the street,” said Shiragha, a 55-year-old clerk who fled Tuesday.
But he, like others, said he had seen no signs the Taliban is on the verge of losing control. “They are weak now,” he said, “but they still control the city.”
Large numbers of Taliban soldiers fled the city Monday, refugees said. Many headed north, apparently to reinforce the pivotal front lines in the standoff with the Northern Alliance, just 35 miles from the city.