On Sept 9, the hills were quiet. The company took no fire.

On Sept. 10, the soldiers intercepted radio chatter, including the voice of one of the fighters talking to others about the harvest. “We will not shoot for 15 days so the people can collect pine cones,” the voice said, according to the translated transcript.

Image Credit... The New York Times

By then, Afghan villagers were visible on the slopes that surround the post.

For three weeks, using long poles that end in hooks to pluck each cone, local men filled sacks with their harvest and brought them down the hills for sale in Orgun, the nearest city, or to Afghan buyers who canvass the harvesters in their villages.

Throughout this time, not a single shot was fired at Observation Post Twins.

Why the Taliban and Haqqani fighters decided to hold their fire is not fully understood.

There are two theories, which are not mutually exclusive.

Captain Halstead said one assumption was that the fighters did not want to start firefights or indirect-fire duels, drawing mortar and artillery barrages, endangering the pine-cone pickers.

The observation post, built late this spring, overlooks the so-called Naka bowl, a small and low-lying agricultural area where several Taliban and Haqqani commanders were born. The insurgent commanders, Captain Halstead said, appeared to be concerned about alienating their neighbors, who did not want to be caught in the daily cross-fire while busy harvesting.

“Our reporting indicates that they are losing the bowl as a safe haven,” he said. “So what do they need? Civilian protection. They don’t want to risk losing it.”

This analysis, and the underlying assumption that Taliban and Haqqani commanders had met with villagers to coordinate the fighting and harvesting schedules, found currency among many of the soldiers.