Birds dip between low branches that hang over glittering brooks along the drive from Jalalabad heading south toward the Achin district of Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province. Then, the landscape changes, as lush fields give way to barren land. 

Up ahead, Achin is located among a rise of rocky mountains that line the border with Pakistan, a region pounded by American bombs since the beginning of the war. 

The Taliban are creating a massive CCTV network covering Afghan cities, which could repurpose a plan drawn up by the Americans before their withdrawal in 2021, an Interior Ministry spokesman told Reuters, as authorities try to replenish thousands of cameras which have already been set up in the capital Kabul. .