>> reporter: up on the roof major habibulah shaheen wants to show us something. >> you can actually see the taliban flag just over on the mountaintop there. >> you see flag. >> reporter: it's been nearly a month since the taliban penetrated afghanistan's second largest city. since then these men haven't had a break. u.s. airstrikes only come in an emergency. rest of the time it's up to them to hold the line. "we feel a little bit weak without u.s. airstrikes and ground support and equipment," he says, "but this is our soil and we have to defend it." >> using heavy weapons. >> reporter: in a villa in the eastern part of the city kandahari lawmaker ghul ahmed khamin is hunkered down. in decades of war he says he's never seen the fighting this bad. >> millions of people in this city are waiting for when they