Afghan Farmers Battle Taliban Alone After U.S. Pulls Out
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As hundreds of Taliban militants closed in on Mohammad Alem’s northeastern Afghanistan hometown in December, he climbed up a hilltop with five neighbors and built a small wood-and-rock fortress.
With no help from the army or air force, for six days they managed to stave off fighters who used heavy weapons to capture several villages in Dangam district of Kunar province, a mountainous region near the Pakistan border. They eventually fled with thousands of others as the guerrillas overran their homes and took about 100 families hostage, including Alem’s.