'Taliban have not become weaker... they hide, only the civilians suffer'

The predicted refugee crisis has begun. Humayun, a grocer from Jalalabad who arrived in Pakistan on Sunday, said: "Anybody who is able to come is coming now."

They have seen the effect of America's bombs and missiles, both the ones that hit their targets and the ones that go astray, and they are not hanging around to see any more. These are people who have known little but war all their lives. But the impact of American weaponry is a revelation to them. "The bang was so loud it made the earth shake," said a young man whose home is a few hundred metres from Jalalabad's airport.

Pakistan has refused to open its borders to new arrivals, except for the injured and women and children. But countless thousands are finding a way into Pakistan through other, informal routes, swelling a refugee population that already numbers more than 2.5 million.

The only thing that checks the numbers is that by Afghan standards it is an expensive operation. "I came with 10 members of my family," said Humayun, "including three of my brothers, my three sons aged five, three and one, and my father. We rented a car from our home in Jalalabad to take us to the vicinity of the pass, which cost 1,500 rupees [£17]. Then we had to pay 2,500 rupees [£27] to get over the mountain, including the cost of donkeys for the children and the old people, because it is a very hard trail."

He decided they had to leave after seeing two separate American airstrikes that went wrong. The village of Karam, bombed last Friday night, was only a 15-minute drive from his home. "We heard the bomb blasts during the night. Next morning I went in my car with two cousins to see what had happened. We found more than 100 people injured; many were trapped under the rubble."

He went on: "Then yesterday I saw the damage that resulted from the bombing of Khushkam Bhat. This is a residential district between Jalalabad airport and a military area. On Saturday night, the Americans bombed the airport and they only hit military targets. But then the Taliban tried to fly one of their helicopters from the airport to a hiding place under trees in the military zone nearby. The Americans saw it flying and tried to shoot it down, but instead the missile hit the residential district that's in the middle. We arrived at 10.30 on Sunday morning. There was nothing we could do to help – 160 people had already been taken to hospital, I don't know how many of them died. More than 100 houses had been either damaged or flattened."

On 7 October, Jawadullah, an Afghan in his early 20s who had been visiting relatives in Pakistan, went back home to his village of Kariz Kabir near Jalalabad. "I arrived home at 10 pm," he told The Independent. "Soon after arriving I saw what looked like lightning in the sky, then there were three enormous explosions: the airport radar had been hit. The runway is only 500 metres from my home, and I could see the flames and hear people screaming. Only one person was injured – the radar operator, who had superficial burns on his hands.

"He said that he had been warned of the attack over the radio, in English, and ran away but could not get far enough to save himself entirely."

Jawadullah has just returned to Pakistan with some members of his family. "Tomorrow I'm going back to get the rest of them, 25 altogether including six women and three children. About 85 per cent of the people of Kariz Kabir have already left," he said.

"After one week of attacks, the Taliban have not become weaker, not at all. They don't need the airports. They hide, they move to other places. It's only the civilians who suffer."