Never mind the Taliban it's the cats that are taking over in Afghanistan

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Diplomatic game of cat and mouse in Kabul over embassy's feline friends

By Julius Cavendish

There may be bombs going off across Afghanistan, a fraught relationship with President Hamid Karzai to preserve, and the small matter of restoring law and order before the troops go home and the money runs out. But diplomats with the US mission in Kabul have another problem on their hands: what to do about the cats.

"We basically can't go out at all," one diplomat confided. "We can't walk across the street; we have to take a tunnel. There are no kids, no families, and basically what we have is the cats. It's as close as we come to normality." But set against the pro-cat lobby are the sticklers for the rules. "I'm not anti-cat," said one senior diplomat. "I'm pro-public health."

Unknown activists pinned a letter, Taliban-style, to the wall of the Embassy pub, the Duck and Cover. "Warning," it read, above an image of two insurgent cats toting AK-47s. "We will break out our fellow comrades from your compound." Another pro-catter secretly distributed flyers picturing a cat posing as Che Guevara. "Viva la revolucion," it read.

The signs are all that America has stumbled into another escalating stalemate in Afghanistan. Read more at www.independent.co.uk

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