US sees potential for wider anti-Taliban uprising

AB BAND, Afghanistan — The men in a village about 100 miles south of Kabul were fed up with the Taliban closing their schools and committing other acts of oppression. So they took up arms last spring and chased the insurgents out with no help from the Afghan government or U.S. military.

Small-scale revolts like the one in the village of Kunsaf are bits of a do-it-yourself anti-insurgency that the U.S. hopes Afghan authorities can transform into a wider movement. They hope it can undercut the Taliban in areas it still dominates after 11 years of war.

The effort in Ghazni province looks like a long shot. But American officials nonetheless are quietly nurturing the trend, hoping it might become a game changer or at least a new roadblock for the Taliban.