Afghan factions resume fighting

Violence casts pall on Rumsfeld visit

Washington Post
April 28, 2002
By Peter Baker and Susan B. Glasser

KHOST, Afghanistan, April 27 -- Factional fighting among rival militia leaders erupted across eastern Afghanistan today for the first time since January, killing and injuring dozens of people and complicating efforts by the U.S.-led military coalition to hunt down residual al Qaeda and Taliban fighters near the Pakistani border.

Rockets rained down on the provincial capital of Gardez, about 65 miles south of Kabul, as two well-armed camps fought for control of the city, while to the east in the border town of Khost, competing gunmen faced off in a tense confrontation at the police station. Both cities are considered on the front line of U.S. operations against scattered fighters from the Taliban and Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda group.

The renewed hostilities cast a cloud over Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's visit to Kabul today and underscored the difficulties facing U.S. forces as they pursue bin Laden. The United States has provided money to various groups in this part of Afghanistan to enlist their aid in finding and destroying any remaining al Qaeda or Taliban concentrations, but has been unable to quell their parochial rivalries for long.

Rumsfeld, who arrived a day after the Kabul airport was hit by a rocket attack, warned of a possible spring offensive from regrouping followers of bin Laden, although he revealed little about the search for the terrorist leader and any remaining forces. "Our goal has been to kill or capture all of them and we've been hard at it," he said at a news conference in the capital with interim Afghan leader Hamid Karzai.

Karzai sounded equally confident. "They may come, they may regroup... but it will just be terrorism trying to make itself felt in small ways," he said.

The latest outbreak of violence traced its origin not to al Qaeda but to the militia leader who dominates eastern Afghanistan, Bacha Khan. After trying to claim the governorship of Paktia province by force in January, leaving more than 60 people dead, Khan was dismissed by Karzai. Afghans say Khan has been plotting his comeback ever since, and he vowed during the battle of Shahikot, in March, to renew his campaign against his enemies after the U.S.-led operation.

The moment arrived overnight Friday when fighting broke out between his forces and those of the Paktia provincial government installed by Karzai in Gardez.

Both sides accused the other of starting the shooting. Khan's side said its base outside of Gardez was attacked at 10 p.m. and two checkpoints were seized before the assailants were repulsed.

Government officials said Khan's troops opened fire first, at around 1:30 a.m., and later began lobbing rockets at Gardez from nearby mountains.

"The city is under attack by heavy artillery," said Khan's brother, Kamal Khan. "We didn't attack. They attacked. We were just defending our positions."

Kamal Khan said he knew of no casualties, but others said dozens were killed or wounded. Said Mohammed Isshaq, the Gardez security chief and a bitter foe of Bacha Khan, said 19 of Khan's troops were killed and 100 injured, while 30 civilians were wounded by rocket fire. Taj Mohammed Wardak, the governor appointed by Karzai to replace Bacha Khan, told the Afghan Islamic Press agency that the shelling of the city had killed 15 people and injured 75.

In Khost, Bacha Khan's forces were involved in another armed clash. The city is one of the most lawless in a country still beset by tension and uncertainty. Gunfire can be heard every half-hour or so, shopkeepers close for fear of violence and residents complain of marauding, drug-influenced gunmen stopping them in the street and stealing their cars.

Karzai's appointed governor, Hakim Tanaiwal, has not yet dared come to Khost from Kabul. The governor's compound is occupied by Kamal Khan's fighters and guarded by a tank and artillery. "If he comes down here, he will come with a flood of bloodshed," Kamal Khan said of the new governor.

Four days ago, in a dispute over control of security in Khost, police officers led by a chief named Mustafa shot security men led by a Khan family ally, killing four or five. The Khan forces pursued Mustafa's fighters to the police station, where they have holed up ever since. Khan's gunmen remained perched on the roof of the neighboring Khost Guest House today, ready to open fire.

City officials said appeals to U.S. commanders based nearby to intervene have been rebuffed. "We got the citizens to tell them that we're sick and fed up with these guys, please take over the city," said Mohammed Akbar, the deputy mayor. "They went and nothing happened." Brig. Habib Nurzai, a senior police official, said he spoke with the U.S. officers on Friday. "They haven't taken a solid step to stop this," he complained.

During stops in Kabul and the western city of Herat today, Rumsfeld offered little in the way of new promises to help the Afghan government cope with internal security tensions. Rumsfeld reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to help train a national army, and said an unspecified amount of U.S. funds "will be freed up in the immediate future" for the Afghan army.

He conceded that building the national army "is not an easy task" in a country still dominated by independent militias, but said it was the only option Washington would consider. Karzai's appeals for expanding the international peacekeeping force to areas outside of Kabul have been rejected by the Bush administration. Today Karzai did not reiterate his plea, suggesting the matter was closed.

This was Rumsfeld's second visit to Afghanistan. The first came in December as fighting took place in Tora Bora, the mountain hide-out from which bin Laden and some of his senior lieutenants are now believed by U.S. intelligence to have escaped. Karzai went out of his way this afternoon to welcome Rumsfeld to "spring in the city of Kabul" in contrast to their first meeting in a cold hangar under heavy security at the U.S. base in Bagram.

But there were many reminders that the war is not over, such as the rocket attack on the Kabul airport the night before Rumsfeld arrived. And a planned parade Sunday to mark the 10th anniversary of the fall of the Communist government was marred by the crash of an Afghan Air Force MiG-21 today during a test run for the celebration; the pilot was killed.

Susan B. Glasser reported from Kabul.

(c) 2002 The Washington Post Company

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