PUL-E-SOFIAN, Afghanistan (EPN) -- Poorly supplied Afghan troops are allowing most vehicles to cruise through checkpoints without inspection along main roads to and from Kabul and Bagram Air Base where U.S. troops are based.

The Afghans apparently believe the capital and surrounding mountainous desert are pacified and not a threat to U.S. forces or Kabul's new regime.

"We are here for security on this road and we are here 24 hours a day," said Mohammad Shafi, 19, in an interview at a main checkpoint 30 miles (48 kilometers) north of Kabul.

"We live here," Mr. Shafi added, gesturing toward a grim collection of mud-brick huts littered with spent ammunition shells, wrecked Russian-built armored personnel carriers and other war debris.

A small bunker next to the road was built from empty, green ammunition boxes piled into four walls held together by dried mud.

"Twenty soldiers live in these buildings. This place is important, so we protect the road in case there are accidents or thieves."

The troops sat on a building's flat rooftop, chatting, drinking tea and eating pinches of sugar piled high in a big aluminum bowl.

Their rooftop position overlooked the two-lane highway.

To create a speed-bump and force vehicles to slow down, they had removed a long chain-link tread from a disabled armored personnel carrier and placed the tread across the road.

They also installed an anti-aircraft gun on the rooftop next to where they drank tea. The soldiers carried Kalashnikov assault rifles.

"We make sure no smugglers pass by," Mr. Shafi said.

"Well, actually we don't check the cars very often. We just sit up here and watch the cars go by."

For amusement, a guard climbed into the seat of the anti-aircraft gun, aimed the barrel east at a nearby mountain and fired an ear-splitting round.

All the guards laughed.

Before the Taliban fled Kabul and allowed U.S.-backed Northern Alliance troops to enter the capital on Nov. 13, this checkpoint at Pul-e-Sofian (Bridge of Sofian) was occupied by Taliban and al Qaeda fighters.

Heavy U.S. aerial bombardment and ground assaults by the Northern Alliance left all buildings in the area in ruins.

"We fought to get this checkpoint from [al Qaeda] Arabs and Pakistanis," said Zahir Shah, 35, another guard on the rooftop.

"We were in those damaged houses over there," Mr. Shah said in an interview, pointing to crumbled buildings further north.

"We attacked and fought. You can see the damage, it is all from the war. About 2,000 Arabs and Pakistanis were in this area, here and in the mountains nearby."

While the guards spoke, cars, buses and trucks packed with Afghans and goods drove through the checkpoint without anyone taking much notice.

During several trips in recent weeks, none of the checkpoints stopped our car or other nearby vehicles even when cars had blacked-out windows.

The highway runs north from Kabul past this checkpoint to Charikar town and further north to the Afghan-Tajikistan border.

Just before reaching Charikar, however, vehicles can make a right turn to Bagram Air Base where U.S. and British troops are based.

All along the main highway, landmine search teams erected signs warning people not to step off the asphalt because the desert is mined.

Overturned Russian-built tanks, armored personnel carriers and other heavy vehicles lay wrecked on both sides of the highway.

Villages along the road were obliterated during the U.S.-led war or from earlier purges by the Taliban after they seized power in 1996.

A newer road also runs north from Kabul but it cuts through unpopulated desert to reach Bagram Air Base.

This so-called "new road" is devoid of traffic except for an occasional convoy of Afghan or foreign officials going to and from the air base, or U.S. and British forces traveling to and from Kabul.

At Barikow checkpoint on the new road, close to the air base, a lone guard sat amid squalor.

"I just wait for my commander General Baba Jan and when he tells me what to do, I do it," the guard said.

"We are 12 soldiers here, but right now I'm alone. We live here," he said, pointing at a bomb shelter dug into the dirt.

The bomb shelter provided a mat-covered floor to sleep on, a transistor radio and wood-burning stove.

Next to the bomb shelter stood a rusty, blue shipping container. It housed a filthy, dark, primitive kitchen where guards cooked meals.

"I've been a soldier for 10 years and I am very tired of war. I want peace. I killed three Taliban and I was happy when I killed them. I wasn't afraid," the guard added.

He fell silent when a couple of vehicles stopped at the checkpoint and disgorged a handful of plain clothed U.S. personnel from Bagram Air Base.

The Americans started taking souvenir snapshots of themselves inside the bomb shelter, in front of the shipping container and other sites at the checkpoint.

"Hey, that guy has got my favorite M.R.E.," one American said to his buddy while eyeing a "Meals Ready to Eat" U.S. military ration inside the bomb shelter.

Asked what food it contained, the American replied: "Meat loaf with brown gravy. That's my favorite."

Another American invited his colleagues to pose in front of the bomb shelter.

"You guys are going to be history. Don't you want your picture? It's a photo opportunity. All of us with our hats," he added.

The Americans wore baseball caps with a small U.S. flag stitched onto the front. They declined to identify themselves except to say they were stationed at Bagram Air Base.

"He's our leader," one of them said, nodding toward an American chomping on a cigar.

Elsewhere on the new road between Bagram and Kabul, a checkpoint at Darosa presented a similar bleak scene.

Mats on a dirt floor in a mud-brick building provided a sleeping area for several men around a stove.

In the corner stood a rocket launcher. A bandolier of bullets hung from a nail in the wall.

"We are guarding this checkpoint for the foreigners who come to Kabul from Bagram," said Moil Idi Mohammad, a 30-year-old guard.

"There has not been any fighting or anything here since we came. I don't know how long we will be here.

"The days are long. We have no water for tea or other things. If they tell us to leave today, we would gladly go. We have to walk two hours to bring water to here," Mr. Mohammad said in an interview.

"Will you take this young guard in your car, just down the road some distance, so he can get water?" Mr. Mohammad asked.

The guard who climbed into the car carried a plastic container and got out several miles away at an isolated checkpoint where a bridge crossed a rivulet.