Kandahar is the second largest city in Afghanistan, with a population of about 468 thousand. It's the capital of Kandahar Province, which is located in the south and has a population of nearly 1 million. Kandahar is a major Afghan trading center for sheep, wool, cotton, silk, felt, food grains, fresh and dried fruit, and tobacco. The region also produces many fine fruits, especially pomegranates and grapes, and the city has plants for canning, drying, and packing, as well as an international airport. 

   Due to its strategic location along the trade routes of Southern and Central Asia, many empires have fought to control the city, and from 1996 to 2001, Kandahar was the capital of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. It's also the Taliban's "spiritual birthplace," and although the Taliban no longer control the city,  the ISAF presence there is fragile. In early 2010, both the province and the city of Kandahar became the site of ISAF operations, and Afghans are fearful that the ISAF will leave as the Soviets did, with the Taliban in control.  To prevent another Taliban takeover of their former headquarters., the new government must garner support by delivering services such as electricity and clean drinking water which the Taliban did not provide.

   The Taliban have much at stake as they try to try to regain their stronghold, and they are resorting to desperate measures to do so. On Jan 29, 2011, a suicide bomber on a motorcycle packed with explosives rammed the car carrying the deputy governor of southern Kandahar Province, killing him and wounding three of his bodyguards. Also killed in the attack were Dr. Massoud Yama, a military doctor, his wife, Hamida Barmaki, a political science professor at Kabul University, and their four children. An influential activist, Hamida was serving on Afghanistan's Independent Human Rights Commission.