'Kite Runner' author Khaled Hosseini says Afghans are 'right to be scared'

Khaled Hosseini, author of 'The Kite Runner,' left, talks with Mohammed Ibrahim, a nomad leader in a tent colony of squatters outside Kabul in 2009. Photo: Pamela Constable

Afghan-American novelist Khaled Hosseini said recently that Afghans were justified to fear the return of the Taliban, with memories still fresh of the brutality of their last time in power.

The 56-year-old best-selling author was born in Kabul and fled with his family to the United States in 1980 after the Soviet invasion.