in the local ghazni office of the international committee of the red cross, the icrc.phone with his source. and the officer says where are you? and he says, i'm sitting by the road on the ring road south of kabul. they stole my car. >> the taliban took our car at gunpoint. >> were you scared? >> absolutely was scared. >> i don't care how you get there, hitchhike if you have to, but get to the red cross office in ghazni. so he shoulders his bag and starts hitchhiking and manages to catch a ride heading south. within a matter of hours, he's in ghazni at the red cross office. >> i remember an afghan man came to the door and said, pretend like you're going to the back of the building. so we headed towards the back. and out of the kitchen came an afghan man dressed in civilian clothes. >> they were very, very happy when they saw me again. they were both like, so much happiness, they were crying. >> we were shocked to see him. and he wasn't wearing his taliban clothes. he didn't have his turban. he was very clean cut. he'd shaved his beard. and he comes to me, and he grabs m

. >> reporter: the only safe way ghazni province is by air.rs carried us there we went there with top government officials, into areas, untilnt recently, lled by the taliban. not long ago this would have been a deadly place to land, with these fields full of taliban fighters. even today, it's a risky trip for afghanistan's national security advisor dr hamdullah mohib. he's here trying to reassure people that governments are in control. >> their main concern is what if this is only temporary? what if we are not able to maintain what happens to them? >> rorter: that's because al across afghanistan, the taliban are launching attacks on police and government forces and even popping up in towns and cities to audaciously grab ground momentarily. the afghan government is keen to show off areas like this they have just rently re-taken using the elite special forces. this area of ghazni, and i'm standing now in the middle of an old police headquarters, was held by the taliban for over five years. e tobiggest challenge wi make sure government forces can

this area of ghazni, and i'm standing now in the middle of an old police headquarters, was held by the over five years. the biggest challenge will be to make sure government forces can hold their ground here and they don't have to keep sending in the special forces timd time again. and that threat is never far away. ese soldiers told us taliban fighters are less than three miles from this sptc, and surely d us arriving. for some, not even the army can help. siraj khan is the governor of a neighboring province that fell to the taliban 12 years ago. any pe he had of a military rescue has long faded. they cannot remove them, he told us. the taliban are veryong there. afgh commando units are kept busy, chasing out the enemy.the but then the next, inevitable taliban advance elsewhere. the regular forces who replace them are weak and ilequipped, and they struggle to hold on. it's the same problem american foes faced here for years. now, more than nine months of intensive negotiations between the us and thealiban have fallen apart, on the cusp of a deal for withdrawi american troops. that dea