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 In fact, you are almost as likely to come across a Taliban
fighter, residents of Khawaja Ghar and surrounding settlements say,
as militants waging an increasingly bold insurgency to overthrow the
government roam with impunity on its doorstep.
The presence of the hardline Islamist group so close to the capital
is not new. For years it has used areas of Deh Sabz to fire
inaccurate, and usually ineffective rockets at Kabul and its airport
to try to disrupt daily life.
But the brief capitulation of the northern city of Kunduz last
month, the first provincial capital to fall to the insurgents in 14
years, has highlighted the vulnerability of major urban centers to
Taliban attacks.
"The Taliban are from this place, and they have support among people
here," resident Mohammad Rasoul told Reuters during a recent visit
to the area about five miles northeast of Kabul.
"They come and knock on our door and introduce themselves as the
Taliban and ask for food and water; we give it to them," added the
farmer, who is in his 40s. "They haven't harassed anyone and we have
no problem with them."
 Local officials play down the significance of the Taliban so close
to the capital, and security experts say they do not have the
capability to capture Kabul, given its size and the presence of
large numbers of local and foreign troops.
Kunduz, 230 km (140 miles) north of the capital, has a population of
around 300,000, one tenth that of Kabul.
"The Taliban do not physically exist in Deh Sabz, but sometimes
bring rockets from other areas and use the district as a launch
pad," said district chief Mohammad Gul Sharafat. "Their activities
do not threaten the district or Kabul city."
However, Sharafat warned against traveling to villages like Khawaja
Ghar, its mud homes set at the foot of rugged mountains that
surround the capital.
"PANIC IN THE CITY"
One senior Afghan security official, who declined to be named
because of the sensitivity of the intelligence, said there had been
indications the Taliban were considering an operation against Kabul
using Deh Sabz and other nearby areas.
"Their plan was obviously not to take over Kabul, because they
can't," said the official.
"It was more a show of force and a demonstration of their reach ...
The plan was to start from the Deh Sabz, Sorubi and Mosahi districts
and engage Afghan forces for hours and start panic in the capital."
Something similar, on a much smaller scale, occurred earlier this
month in Ghazni, southwest of Kabul, when a Taliban attack several
miles away caused alarm and residents, familiar with the rapid fall
of Kunduz days before, began to flee the city.
Ted Callahan, a security adviser in Afghanistan, said evidence of
Taliban activity so close to Kabul was worrying.
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"Obviously, you have practical concerns, as far as how close they
can get, how accurate their fire will be, the rate of fire they can
lay down on the city," he said.
"But then, you have the potential for panic to take root. And that
has almost become a self-fulfilling prophecy in a lot of cities in
the north, where people just assume it is going to be overrun, they
panic, they leave."
LAND DISPUTES AND LAWLESSNESS
Despite its proximity to the relatively liberal capital, Deh Sabz,
with a population of 120,000, is a conservative area.
It is also one where local land disputes play out, some of them
linked to an as yet unrealized development scheme to build thousands
of new homes and offices near Kabul.
Resulting rivalries have fed into a sense of lawlessness, which the
Taliban, who rose to power in the mid-1990s amid chaotic civil
conflict, have been able to exploit before.
Qais Hassan, a member of parliament from the Bagrami district in the
southeast of Kabul, said he had complained to police about the
presence of insurgents in Deh Sabz.
Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi said intelligence reports
indicated there were no Taliban in the district.
"The Interior Ministry strongly denies the existence of Taliban in
Deh Sabz district. We have plenty of security measures for Kabul,
and the establishment of a garrison force was one of the steps we
took to ensure the safety of the city."
Locals, who urge strangers not to stay in the area after dark, see
it differently.
"Sometimes I can see the dust kicking into the air as rockets are
fired towards Kabul. Who fires them and at what, I don't know," said
Khawaja Ghar resident Sayed Ahmad.
A teenage boy standing nearby interjected: "They are the Taliban,
the Taliban". He was quickly told to shut up.
(Editing by Mike Collett-White)
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