(CNN) -- Rarely seen by outsiders, the daily life of a regional Taliban commander named Dawran and his militant fighters is dominated by extremes: love and war, attack and retreat, life and death. For nine days in October 2009, Norwegian journalist Paul Refsdal was behind the lines with the Taliban, embedded as no Western filmmaker before him. And he was there to witness firsthand the jarring juxtapositions in Dawran's life, at turns -- directing an attack against U.S. forces in Afghanistan's treacherous mountains -- then hours later at home, a father playing with his children. To capture these intimate and unprecedented images, Refsdal risked his life to embed with Dawran and his fighters in Kunar Province -- the northeastern region where al Qaeda is active and Osama bin Laden was once rumored to be hiding.
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Norwegian journalist Paul Refsdal embedded with the Taliban last year to capture daily life
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Rarely seen by outsiders, he saw plans for attacks as well as a home life of the Taliban
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Refsdal says he knows that the images he captured will be surprising to many, and disturbing to some
Taliban
Taliban
Taliban
Taliban
The @placeholder government ruled Afghanistan -- and gave safe harbor to al Qaeda terrorist training camps -- from the mid-1990s until 2001.
Afghanistan
The Taliban government ruled @placeholder -- and gave safe harbor to al Qaeda terrorist training camps -- from the mid-1990s until 2001.
Osama bin Laden
Leaders refused to extradite @placeholder, prompting the U.S. invasion which toppled the Taliban government and made way for national elections.
Taliban
Taliban
Taliban
Taliban
A U.S. press officer searched through 1,800 reports from October 2009 and said, "To be clear: we have no reports of any @placeholder attacks in that area during the timeframe given."
Paul Refsdal
Refsdal
Paul Refsdal
Refsdal
@placeholder finds Dawran "crying like a kid" over his lost men.