A Fort Of Nine TowersQais akbar omar was eleven when a brutal civil war engulfed kabul. For qais, it brought an abrupt end to a childhood filled with kites and cousins in his grandfather's garden: one of the most convulsive decades in afghan history had begun. Ahead lay the rise of the taliban, and, in 2001, the arrival of international forces. A fort of nine towers is the story of qais, his family and their determination to survive these upheavals as they were buffeted