AGRO, Afghanistan — The American mission to win hearts and minds by carrying out reconstruction projects in Afghanistan’s most entrenched mountain backwater faces an uphill struggle.

In the remote eastern province of Nuristan, there are few roads, no buses, no telephones, and few people have ever met a government official.

The local police force has not been paid for months and refuses to man checkpoints.

“We had the situation where instead of warning us about ambushes, the police put in earplugs and pretended they had heard or seen nothing,” the commander of Alpha Troop of 3rd Squadron 71st Cavalry, Captain Matt Gooding, stationed in Kamdesh district, said.

The strategy employed by the American-dominated NATO forces is to “fight and build” — to provide security and instigate “reconstruction” projects, extending the writ of President Karzai’s government.

“What we are doing is classic counterinsurgency,” Lieutenant Colonel Mike Howard, who commands the squadron, said. “You must lead with actions. We point out that we rebuild their houses while the Taliban does nothing for them.”

In its six-month deployment in Kamdesh, the unit has built up a shaky confidence with locals through limited road building, water pipe schemes, and micro-hydro projects to bring electricity.

But even by the standards of a country ravaged by nearly 30 years of war, Nuristan is an infrastructural desert.

In a region that has traditionally resisted outside interference, many locals take a dim view of progress on principal — especially when delivered by American soldiers.

“When we came here, they asked whether we were Russians,” Captain Gooding said.

Making matters worse is that in an area where skilled labor is sparse, Nuristanis have made it clear that they “cannot guarantee the security” of contractors brought in from outside the province.

“This is the Wild West. Contractors don’t come up here,” Major Brian Troglia, who is a civil affairs officer, said. “We still haven’t been able to persuade an engineer from outside that it is safe enough up here to come and supervise road construction.”

A foot patrol last week from the camp at Urmul to the village of Agro underscored how insurgents crossing the border from Pakistan have hindered the American mission.

“The dangerous time is on the way back. That is usually when they spring the ambush,” Sergeant Terry Raynor, who led the patrol, said. His platoon has been ambushed several times over the past months. They became aware of one ambush in a neighboring valley when a donkey-supply train sent to an observation post came back unattended. Despite the warning, three men were wounded.

To enhance security, the Americans have hired 60 guards as part of a program to recruit “auxiliary police.”

But those who side with the Americans face danger. One tribal elder and a border police chief were killed by the Taliban recently after cooperating with the Americans, while convoys of trucks transporting reconstruction materials have been destroyed.