KURGAN-TYUBE, Tajikistan -- Beneath the white flag of progovernment forces, a dozen soldiers on duty at the city's ransacked bus station clutch their weapons and strain to hear from which direction a new round of gunfire is coming.


"A sniper", one of them concludes, and the others nod in agreement. A light tank, stolen from the enemy, is dispatched, and a few shells from its cannon put an end to the sniper's work.


But between bursts of automatic gunfire and the odd cannon shot, an unnatural quiet hangs heavily in the air. City streets are utterly deserted. Government buildings, schools, factories and homes that once represented integral parts of these men's lives are now just positions to be taken, posts to be manned, lookouts from which the enemy can be spotted and stations from which a sniper might shoot.


Civil war has transformed what was once Tajikistan's third largest city into a battleground.


"We used to watch the scenes from Afghanistan on television", a post commander, who identified himself only as Zabir, said of the war across the border. "We thought, 'How terrible! That could never happen here! ' But it has".


But Zabir took no chances.


This spring he sent his younger brother across the border with Afghanistan to buy a Kalashnikov machine gun for 50, 000 rubles.


The Kurgan-Tyube "defenders", as the pro-government fighters call themselves, are backing a coalition of democrats and Islamic factions who teamed up last month to oust the Tajik president, Rakhmon Nabiyev -- a hardliner who enjoyed great support from the Kulyab region that borders Kurgan-Tyube.


As scuffles broke out in Kurgan-Tyube between local Kulyabies and other Tajik clans, a Kulyab army marched on Kurgan-Tyube, eventually taking the entire city before being driven back into one district on Sunday. All day Monday a stalemate held. It ended Tuesday when the Kulyabies again advanced into Kurgan-Tyube, retaking the pro-government part of the town.


From their positions on the streets, the pro-government fighters see the war as a battle to defend their homes from Kulyaby invaders, to stop the progress of Kulyaby hardliners who would "like to raise the red flag over Dushanbe", as one fighter put it, and finally, as a war with the Kulyabies themselves.


"The Kulyabies are the lowest Tajiks", said Haji Jamanakhmadob, a pro-government commander of 50 to 100 troops in the defense of the Kuibyshev Collective Farm on the town's outskirts, where fierce fighting Tuesday drove him and his men completely out of the Kurgan-Tyube region.


"Every Tajik learns that from the time he is this big", he said, holding his hand waist high.


"We sat with them", said Makhmat Karim, 41, a pro-government fighter in soiled blue jeans and a Team USA baseball cap. "We ate with them. We never cared whether they were Kulyaby or not".


As the fighting continues and atrocities mount, what were once just vague, ancient suspicions about the neighboring clan are being polarized into hatred.


Seroj Karimov sat sullenly at the bus station post Monday, his eyes puffy and thin and his gaze cold. The 26-year-old was mourning his 23-year-old brother, Kushzar, who had been killed just 30 minutes earlier.


"They came up to him and wanted to know where he was from", Karimov said, with much coaching from his excited, angry comrades. "He said 'Zanch' so they shot him".


Zanch is a city located about 100 kilometers east of Dushanbe, whose inhabitants are not held in high esteem by Kulyabies.


Soon the charges of atrocities began to pour forth.


A journalist was taken to a room where Kulyabies allegedly gang-raped a woman. They told of a family whose four children -- one only 3 months old -- were thrown into the river. They claimed that the Kulyaby military commander, Sanjakh Safarov, was insane and his army a collection of former prisoners and forced conscripts. The exaggeration and rumor fly wildly, dimming the chances for a peaceful solution.


"Atrocities have been committed on both sides", said a diplomat based in Dushanbe. "Both sides are losing. Both sides have shown more interest in fighting than in options for peace".


The Russian Army, which has bases both in Kurgan-Tyube and Kulyab, is becoming a bogeyman in the minds of the pro-government fighters, who see the Russian troops as taking the Kulyaby side.


Though the pro-government fighters have benefitted more from weapons smuggled across the Afghan border than the Kulyabies, they are still poorly armed.


Of the roughly 12 fighters posted at the bus station Monday, only three had Kalashnikovs; the rest had hunting rifles or pistols. One man carried a knife.


In such a poorly armed war, a single tank can make the difference between victory and defeat. That is precisely what happened last week when the Kulyabies managed to get hold of four tanks from a Russian base, tipping the balance so heavily in their favor that they took the entire town of Kurgan-Tyube before Russian troops destroyed or recaptured the tanks.


"There is no denying that it happened", said the diplomat on the incident. "It's not clear how they took the tanks. My impression is the Russians, as a policy, are determined to stay out of this".


But in the minds of the civilians-turned-soldiers posted beneath the white flag at the bus station, the evilness of the enemy grows, and with it, a hunger for total victory.


"We have to win", said Makhmat, who was armed only with a pistol. "We're right. We'll chase them all the way to Afghanistan".