He was then jailed, keeping him from fighting American troops.
"They were fighting troops and many spoke German," she remembered.
Kahlan had been around armies her entire life, and knew about fighting troops.
Iran has provided military aid to some of the rebel factions fighting Soviet troops.
First reports said the 65-year-old president had died fighting troops, but later police sources reported he had committed suicide.
"How could people like that put together an army, an army capable of fighting real troops, right under our noses?"
Given the country's attitudes to race, it is not surprising that the enlistment of fighting troops from the much larger black population was hardly considered.
He later wrote that "Never did troops fight more gallantly" than at Franklin.
He would fight troops from other cliques if they encroached the provincial boundaries.
Islamic radicals from northern Afghanistan also began to fight Russian troops in the region.