And life cannot return to normal.

"It is impossible to go back to our village because our house has been destroyed, unless the coalition forces help us," continues villager Haji Bilal-jan, referring to NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

"My house was bombed and burnt. I lost 4,000 kilogrammes (8,800 pounds) of raisins that were ready for market," says the 48-year-old with a black turban and thick beard.

"ISAF was cruel, they bombed our houses when there weren't even any Taliban here."

Another villager, Namatullah, interrupts. "Why did you allow the Taliban to come here?" demands the 45-year-old, who does not wear the traditional turban, unleashing a bitter debate.

"We have to call a shura (council) in every village to appoint someone to tell the strangers -- Taliban or other -- to go on their way," he says.

But says Haji Bilal-jan, "We do not have the power to stop the Taliban from coming to our village or to ask the coalition not to bomb our houses."

"The government must pardon everyone and let them return," he says, apparently referring to the Taliban, whose main leaders have found refuge in Pakistan.

Namatullah recalls meeting some of the Taliban who had moved into the area.

"One day I was working close to a stream where women were washing clothes with the children. A hundred metres (yards) away, I saw a group of Taliban.

"I told them to leave, that they were going to get these women and children killed. They replied, 'No we have orders.'"

His house was destroyed by a bomb and his loft, which contained 25,000 rupees (413 dollars) worth of opium, was hit by a rocket, he says.

But he is not complaining. "I am happy because the Taliban deserve punishment, even if it cost the destruction of my house."

"If Pakistan is helping them, the Taliban will come back. If it drops them, they will not come back," he says.

Captain Majid Khan, commander of an Afghan company that was brought down from the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif to take part in the battle, claims that "there are no more Taliban in the area and people are returning to their homes".

But the day after the September 17 announcement of the end of ISAF's operation in this area, a suicide attack nearby killed four Canadian soldiers. Troops find batches of homemade bombs every other day.

"We try to question the people to get information but they are still scared of the Taliban and believe they are still in power and they won't talk to us," says Khan, ruling out any ethnic tension with the local Pashtu population, from which the Taliban originate.

"If the villagers cooperate with us, the Taliban can do nothing."

Residents attribute their misfortunes to both sides. "We can't blame anyone because the Taliban are here, but it was the Americans who bombed," says a woman whose face is entirely covered by a veil.

But a 19-year-old also named Namatullah entirely blames the destruction on the takeover of the orchards and grapevines of Pashmul by the Taliban. "Why were they no bombings before the Taliban came?" he asks.

"The Taliban imposed themselves on us by force," says the young man. "They told us: 'You are not Muslims, we have come to fight the unbelievers and you want to stop us.'

"But," he sighs, "we are tired of war."

NATO, Afghan forces kill 40 militants in Afghanistan
KABUL (AFP) Sep 24 - NATO-led and Afghan security forces backed by war planes killed 40 Taliban rebels in a raid in southern Afghanistan, the Afghan defence ministry said Sunday.

The rebels were killed during an operation by the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and Afghan military forces in southern Helmand province's Greshk district on Saturday, it said in a statement.

"As a result of ISAF air bombardment and a joint ground operation, 40 enemies of our people were killed," it said.

A rebel stronghold was also "totally" destroyed in the raid in which Afghan and foreign troops sustained no casualties, it added.

Security forces meanwhile captured 21 suspected Taliban combatants across insurgency-hit southern and eastern Afghanistan, the ministry said in a separate statement.

Eight other men were captured in southern Zabul over suspected links to extremist Taliban movement, which was toppled in a US-led offensive five years ago.

Sixteen of the fighters were seized on Saturday in "clearance operations" in the eastern town of Khost, the statement said.

Afghan forces arrested five more a day earlier in neighbouring Paktia province, which borders Pakistan.

Paktia's governor, Hakim Taniwal, was assassinated by a Taliban-linked suicide bomber on September 10. Six other people were killed when another suicide attacker blew himself up at the governor's funeral the next day.

Afghan and foreign security forces are trying to root out the Taliban so that reconstruction of war-shattered Afghanistan can push ahead.

But the militants have stepped up their insurgency this year, showing more sophistication than before and attacking the security forces in well-planned operations while maintain a vicious guerrilla-style campaign of suicide and roadside bombings that has killed scores civilians.

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