FEW outside Kabul are as powerful as the governor of Balkh, a province in northern Afghanistan. Win an audience with Atta Mohammad Noor and you are left in little doubt of his status. He receives guests from a golden throne at the end of a long hall hung with chandeliers. His word exerts iron control over the provincial capital, Mazar-i-Sharif, and to Hairatan, the nearby, lucrative border with Uzbekistan.

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