(2 of 2)
Uruzgan is certainly a place that could confound an army. The province was a Taliban hotbed that sent hundreds of young men to fight for the regime. Mohammed Younis, the warlord in charge of the military compound raided by the U.S., was friendly with senior Taliban leaders; his son had close ties to Taliban Health Minister Mohammed Abbas Akhund, one of the movement's founders. A Kandahar official told TIME that Akhund and a few other Taliban leaders are believed to be hiding in the mountains outside Uruzgan. While it is possible that U.S. troops simply went to the wrong place in search of those leaders, locals suspect that American commanders were duped by warlords--including, perhaps, Younis, who survived the U.S. attack--trying to eliminate rivals. "I blame Afghans," says Ahmed Wali Karzai, the interim leader's brother. "It was an Afghan mistake."
Others are less generous toward the U.S., in part because of the brutality of the attack at the Sharzam school. One witness of the aftermath said the Americans shot Afghans as they hid under beds and rushed out of doorways. The Pentagon maintains that the Afghans started shooting first, but villagers say they heard no gunfire from inside the school. Two dead Afghans were found with their wrists bound. One U.S. soldier left behind a note: "Have a nice day. From Damage Inc." Days after the attack, the classrooms at the school were still soaked in thick blood. Surveying the carnage, a Uruzgan elder said, "The U.S. must be punished for what they did in this room." Even mistakes aren't easily forgotten.
--With reporting by Mark Thompson/Washington