Each day at least two UN flights arrive at Bagram military airport in Kabul, laden with UN staff, aid workers, journalists, diplomats, and just about anybody else who has an interest in the rebuilding of Afghanistan and is up for paying the $600 one-way fare. The airfield is the only usable one around, as the runways of Kabul airport are still pocked with unexploded US bombs as well as thoroughly damaged by the ones that did hit their mark.
But this is no ordinary airport, a notion made clear upon arrival, when visitors are "greeted" on the runway by occasionally surly Northern Alliance soldiers who make quite a drama of searching luggage. Leaving the airstrip for Kabul, the road is lined on either side with white and red painted stones, an indication that a miscalculation of several inches off the road could lead one into a minefield.
"Stand only on the hard surface," says Guy Richards, the spokesman for the British troops who are now stationed at Bagram. He is giving reporters a tour of the airfield, or at least the area that the Northern Alliance has approved.
"It was only 500 meters from here that somebody got blown up a few weeks ago," Major Duncan Dewar said. The British troops, whose deployment stands at 120, are here to provide security for the coalition partners, to help the Northern Alliance stabilise, and to help de-mine the area.
Another 100 British marines are expected to arrive in Kabul on Saturday to provide security within the city limits.
In a place where it is hard to distinguish Northern Alliance soldiers from others, the British troops, along with the Americans who are at the airfield, have their work cut out. Major Dewar confirmed that there have been several incidents of breaches of security, instances where armed men got past the gate guarded by the Northern Alliance.
"There have been a number of suspect incidents, we have apprehended people and turned them over to the Northern Alliance," he said. "That's why we're here." Whether the men were Taliban fighters or simply intruders had not been determined, he said.
In addition to deploying demining teams immediately for an eight square mile area that has been almost constantly mined during 20 years of war, the British troops are preparing to settle in for a long, cold winter.
"We are winterising the airport, getting de-icing equipment in," he said.
Standing before an airplane hangar that is little more than twisted metal and glassless windows, Major Dewar states the obvious; "We have a lot of work to do."