'Double-faced' Afghan informant

By Hao Zhou and Qiu Yongzheng in Kandahar

"If allowed, I would put my rifle on his chest and shoot him with 30 bullets," First Lieutenant Alan Bobcock of the US Army's 101st Airborne Division, said furiously before throwing his camera on the bed and storming out of a dorm.

Minutes earlier, the impatient Babcock had just finished talking with the company's only local informant, Ahmed Mohammad, and went to report to Captain James Thomasson, commander of A Company.

Babcock showed Mohammad several photos of farmers that A Company had met along its patrol routes in past days and asked whether Mohammad knew them and whether he knew if they had links with Taliban insurgents.

However, Mohammad, 40, in traditional Pashtun shawal kamiz (tunic and pants), simply responded with some names and cleared the suspicions on those farmers, saying they were just farming around the US army's patrol base.

Then Mohammad, through a local Afghan interpreter, continued to turn in the intelligence on recent Taliban ac-tivities such as the places where the Taliban had planted new improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and how many Taliban fighters had turned up in his village in past days.

Mohammad is a father of seven children, and his family is one of the only six left in a village near Cop Nolen, a US army's patrol base in Arghandab district, northwest of Kandahar.

"I hate the Taliban because they often come to my village, whip our people and loot our houses," Mohammad told the Global Times when asked why he came to sell intelligence to the US troops.

To win support from local people, the Taliban inform local people about where they plant IEDs and tell civilians not to go near those areas, according to Mohammad.

Based on the information provided by Mohammad, the US troops have successfully uncovered two IEDs around the base since the US army was deployed to Arghandab in June. He was paid 5,000 Afghanis (around $100) for each one.

Although Mohammad is the only informant who comes to the US base regularly and sells intelligence, the US troops still have trust issues with him.

"I don't trust him at all. I am sure that he works for both sides," Thomasson told the Global Times, even though he couldn't provide any evidence of the allegation.

"Only 20 percent of his words are reliable, and the others are total bullshit. He is just coming to spy on us," Babcock alleged.

Mohammad is also famous in Cop Tynes, which is about 1.5 kilometers from Cop Nolen.

"Mohammad? Do you mean the Taliban's spy?" Jimmy, an Afghan interpreter in Cop Tynes, laughed upon hearing the name.

Note: The name of the informant in this story was changed to Ahmed Mohammad for his protection.