On a recent Friday when their country’s election crisis continued to unfold, a clique well to do Afghans flew kites on dusty Nadir Shah Hill in Kabul. The hill is famous for this — sometimes it is simply called Kite Hill. It is a dusty, rutted...

There is no one as colourful and controversial among the warlords of Afghanistan as General Abdul Rashid Dostum, a man of immense power and huge wealth whose name became synonymous with bloodshed and betrayal during the long years of conflict. General...