Is West winning in Afghanistan? Tide of displaced people suggests not.
Her body shaking and tears flowing, Maghul is the epitome of what it means to be among the latest crop of war victims in Afghanistan.
Taliban militants came to her town in central Wardak province in mid-2017, and during battle with the Afghan police, burned her home and killed her husband, a farmer who was out “doing his daily routine,” she says.
So Maghul had no choice but to escape with her two grown sons and join the ranks of nearly half a million internally displaced people (IDPs) who fled their homes in 2017 alone. The upheaval adds to an astonishing metric of the scale of on-going war, 16 years after American troops first arrived to oust the Taliban.
One son now begs on the streets of Kabul, coming home long after dark, despite the constant risk of car bombs.
“I tell him, ‘Don’t come late or the Taliban will kill you like they
Fear of retributionStepped up US bombingEyes on any 2018 trendGrim survival
