The Black Line

Osama bin Laden, Mullah Omar and the Pakistani connection: In Afghanistan it's a difficult war on an invisible border.

PAKTIKA PROVINCE, Eastern

Lt. Ryan Case gives me the cheat sheet. With the fingertip of his green gloves, he points to a red fortress in the distance, a Pakistani checkpoint called the "red castle." And then he follows it across the plain to another Pakistani checkpoint, a similar structure, this one painted gray.

"Draw a line from there to there, the red castle to the gray castle," he says. "That's the border of Pakistan."

Case and his men, from the 10th Mountain Division's 2nd Battalion, 87th Infantry Alpha Company, have come back to this location to show their battalion commander, Lt. Col. Chris Toner, where they fought a battle with Taliban insurgents they believe crossed over from Pakistan.

Afghan National Army and American soldiers man a series of mountaintop observation posts on the border that have been frequently targeted by the Taliban.

In one case last year, while the 82nd Airborne was still in command of the area, a location known as Observation Post 4 was actually overrun. Both Afghan and American troops were forced to retreat until they counter-attacked with withering artillery fire that forced the Taliban back off the mountain.

Earlier this month Case's men were called out as a quick reaction force, after Afghan Army soldiers ran into a Taliban patrol on the Afghan side of the border. While the Afghans pursed, the Americans, in armored humvees, cut off their escape route back into Pakistan.

"At one point we were taking small arms and RPG (rocket-propelled grenade) fire from both ridgelines, while we're driving up the middle," Case says. "Two vehicles oriented their guns west and the other two oriented their guns east, while we made our way up the ridgeline."

The soldiers say the Taliban retreated back across the border, taking their dead and wounded with them.

Surveying the border

The porous border has become a major point of contention between the two nations — both for criminal and insurgent activity. Mountain passes serve as an entry point for Taliban fighters and an exit point for Afghan poppies, used to make opium and heroin.

"The border is never going to be completely closed, just like the U.S. and Mexico," says Lt. Col. Paul Fitzpatrick, a public affairs officer with the 10th Mountain Division. "But Pakistan and Afghanistan are working toward solving the issues they have."

Some of that is taking place in more public than diplomatic channels. On a recent trip to Malaysia, Afghanistan's Foreign Minister, Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, said Pakistan needs to help more in the fight against the Taliban.

And as the weather in the area warms up, the Taliban seems to grow bolder. A statement phoned to reporters in Islamabad and in Kandahar, reportedly issued by deposed Taliban leader Mullah Omar, said to expect an increase in suicide attacks in Afghanistan.

"Young Afghans are coming to mujahedeen camps in large numbers to enroll their names for suicide attacks," the statement said, according to wire service reports.

It continued: "This year, with the beginning of summer, Afghan soil will turn red for the crusaders and their puppets, and the occupiers will face an unpredictable wave of Afghan resistance."

There have been some 30 suicide bombings in Afghanistan in the past six months, raising fears that the technique, which had been rare here, could become widespread.

Another tactic commanders here fear is the increase in the use and sophistication of IEDs (improvised explosive devices). In fact, on March 15, America's top commander in Afghanistan, Maj. Gen. Benjamin Freakley, told a

"There is uptick in violence here." says Fitzpatrick. "But in no way does it compare to Iraq. I think it's directly related to insurgents' inability to take their fight directly to the government or coalition forces. And that's why we're applying the development of an IED task force across all our areas of operation. We're focusing on intelligence gathering, capturing bomb makers and cell leaders."

Patrolling remote Afghanistan

There are also major military shifts happening all over Afghanistan, with the Canadian military taking over Kandahar and the south — the former Taliban stronghold and one of the most volatile areas of the country.

This, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld says, will allow the American forces in Afghanistan to be reduced from 19,000 to 16,000 by summer.

The U.S. will, however, continue to run counterinsurgency operations focused on hunting down

These activities are mostly the domain of teams of special forces and individuals from what has become cryptically known as OGA, for "Other Government Agencies," such as the

"Special forces have been and will continue to be the spearhead of counterterrorism," says Fitzpatrick. "We're talking about special operations forces from multi-nations and multi-agencies. They're smaller, highly trained and very frequently work with Afghan counterparts for their missions. It seems to me the strategy is working because of the consistent flow of mid-level Taliban being killed or run out of the country."

Back on the border, Case and his platoon begin a climb up an 8,000 foot-high peak known as Observation Post 5. Once, Afghan troops burrowed in here overlooking a vast panorama. If there was movement on either side of the border they could see it from here. But the extreme cold and the difficulty in keeping the post supplied eventually led to its abandonment.

Now American soldiers, wearing body armor, carrying packs and their weapons, make the steep climb. The elevation is actually more like 14,000 feet since the base is already 6,000 feet above sea level. Midway, many are winded and stop to catch their breath.

The view from the top

When we finally reach the top we take in the magnificent vista, from which you can see for miles in every direction. The soldiers pull out their digital cameras to take pictures together on the summit.

The wind whistles through the abandoned bunkers reinforced with nylon sandbags. There are empty water bottles and the olive green foil packets from U.S. MREs (meals ready to eat). It almost looks as whoever was here had just abandoned the place in a hurry.

Battalion commander Lt. Col. Toner talks with Alpha Company commander Capt. Chris Nunn while they look out over the real beauty and the imaginary borders — the black line that separates Afghanistan and Pakistan, which no one seems to recognize.

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