"As we are beginning our descent," the airplane announcement asked, "will you all please put on your body armour and helmet, and raise your seats and tray-tables to an upright position."
My flight into Kabul with a contingent of the Royal Irish regiment, on their way to reinforce the British Army in Afghanistan, and on my way to cover the conflict this week for Newsblog, smacked down on the Kabul runway in a manner I've become used to over the past 48 hours: with me in a flak jacket, surrounded by men with guns.
In the past two days I've met with diplomats and officials at the British Embassy, MPs in the Afghan Parliament, Soldiers at the British camp and the Nato headquarters - the results of which interviews will appear here this week - and travelled between all of them in a Landcruiser convoy, accompanied by armed soldiers, and wearing my body armour. The contrast with my previous trip here - unaccompanied, and happily wandering about the place - is very marked. How must we look to the locals, I wonder? If only I was allowed to get out and ask.
The picture above is the Tank Graveyard. Russian tanks, destroyed in the Afghan-Soviet war, were dragged up there and raided for parts by the Taliban. More from armoured vehicles later...
