CHINARI OUTPOST, Afghanistan (AP) — Over Capt. Mohammed Raza’s walkie-talkie came an intruder’s voice: Faqir Talha, a Taliban fighter telling a comrade, “Everyone is with us. We will have a village meeting. It will be at 3 p.m. and everyone should come.”

The plains of Logar Province are vast, but the distance between army and enemy can be small. The village of sun-dried mud huts where Raza suspects the insurgents’ meeting is to take place lies barely a kilometer (less than a mile) from Chinari outpost and its complement of 20 Afghan National Army troops,