| Brazenly advertising their presence in a city where the Taliban were routed only last weekend, a group of American and British special forces rode downtown in open trucks and set up camp right next to the governor's compound. The move, by troops whose presence was not, until today, officially admitted by the Pentagon, startled the throngs who shopped for long-forbidden music cassettes and other goods in Kandahar's fully opened markets. A large crowd stood outside the downtown compound that the Western soldiers had entered with duffel bags and packs, riding in trucks with "I Love New York" bumper stickers. The mood seemed more curious than hostile. "We came here to see the Americans and to see how they will treat us," one man said. A British soldier with short blond hair and a Palestinian-style checkered scarf stood through the roof of a Land Rover and waved back at children, sometimes offering a thumbs up. |