In Kabul clinic, Taliban and the soldiers they fought confront wounds of war

Taliban fighter Abdul Qayum from Helmand province walks next to former a soldier from the old Afghan Army Khair Mohammad who lost both legs in a mine blast during a session to get used to their new leg prothesis at a rehabilitation center in Kabul, Afghanistan October 14, 2021. Taliban fighters are now getting used to new artificial limbs alongside soldiers of the army they fought to defeat. Picture taken October 14, 2021. REUTERS/Jorge Silva

KABUL (Reuters) - Former Taliban fighter Mohammad Ishaq, who spent years battling Western troops and local forces in Afghanistan, lost his leg in combat and is now learning to walk with a new limb. Standing near him at a Kabul clinic is one of the soldiers he defeated.

In the Red Cross Hospital in Kabul, Ishaq spoke simply of the eight years he spent in Helmand, the southern province where some of the fiercest fighting of the war took place and where thousands of civilians and combatants were killed and maimed.