They didn't run in panic; after all, they have grown accustomed to this sort of thing. Instead, they stood and gazed skyward -- bearded men, young boys, women in veils, watching the airplane and the attempts to shoot it down.
When an airplane streaked across the sun-dappled blue sky above the Afghan capital on Saturday afternoon -- airspace long since shut down by the ruling Taliban -- many residents thought it was a US plane heralding the start of war. Another war.
"We have seen so much fighting, now no one is afraid of death," said Najibullah, a mechanic, watching the scene unfold with his three young children.
"Nobody is afraid of the bombing," he said. "Who cares about the attack?"
It wasn't an attack, though. But it was one thing: mysterious. Though the airplane appeared to be a military reconnaissance craft, there was no definitive indication of where it came from or what it was doing.
For many who belong to this generation in Afghanistan, war is the rule and peace the exception.
And it takes more than a plane flying over, even an American one, to genuinely unnerve people -- especially in Kabul, whose buildings are pocked with ample evidence of previous wars.
During a thunderous 25-minute barrage of anti-aircraft fire, hardly any one was seen running in panic or trying to duck for cover. Residents streamed into the streets and onto rooftops to watch.
Thousands of feet above them, they saw a tiny metallic pinpoint of white -- the airplane, leaving a jetstream behind it.
Taliban soldiers fired with anti-aircraft guns from three or four positions. But the slow moving plane, which they later claimed was on a spying mission, was beyond their reach.
Minutes later, the Taliban also fired two decades-old, British blue-pipe missiles but missed the target. The missiles were given to Afghan guerrilla fighters in early 1980s when they were battling the troops of the former Soviet Union.
"We have seen so many Russian planes -- now it is an American," said Bara Allayia, a shopkeeper, laughing as he watched the sky.
"I must say, it seems a beautiful plane."
Last month, the Taliban said it shot down a spy plane over northern Afghanistan. The US acknowledged it had lost contact with an unmanned reconnaissance plane but had no reason to believe it was shot down.
On this day, many people were disappointed: Gunfire went up, but no plane came down. But soon after the plane zoomed from view, people went back to what they were doing, discussing with excitement the prospects of US strikes and the possible Taliban response.
And within hours, life had returned to normal -- or what passes for normal these days in Kabul, the capital of what is now the most isolated country in the world.
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