After the war, infighting begins

Wrapped in a blanket beneath the sullen winter skies, Badshah Khan is the image of a defeated man. Fifteen of his fighters have been killed, and hundreds, he says, were taken captive after he fell for what he called a "trap" set by his adversaries a day earlier.

Rival warlords seeking control of Paktia Province have battled for two days in this strategic city 80 miles south of Kabul.

Mr. Khan and his fighters stormed Gardez two days ago, after he was appointed governor of the province by interim government Chairman Hamid Karzai. The man who has been in charge of Gardez since the Taliban regime took control of the country in 1996 and since its fall in late November - Saif Ullah - has refused to leave.

This intense fighting is the first between rival Afghan warlords since the Taliban were defeated two months ago. And it portends grave difficulties for the fragile government of Mr. Karzai, as well as for American special forces on the ground attempting to round up remnant Al Qaeda and Taliban members.

Most of the major cities of the country - Mazar-e Sharif, Kandahar, Herat, and Jalalabad - are controlled by different warlords and their tribal militias. Many here fear that infighting among them could lead to an all-out civil war.

Fighters for Khan, from the Zadran tribe of eastern Afghanistan, and Mr. Ullah, who has ties to factions within the Northern Alliance, pounded one another mercilessly yesterday with heavy mortar, tank- and machine-gun fire. Frightened residents fleeing the city describe gruesome scenes of dead fighters massed near the town square beneath the ancient Bala Hisar fort.

Khan says he called Karzai, who was in London asking for additional peacekeeping troops to expand throughout the country, on a satellite phone. He says Karzai directed him to approach the nearby US special forces base and ask for assistance in his fight.

"The US officers have refused to intervene, and so the time for diplomacy is over," Khan says. "This is the time for war, and we have sent word to thousands of our tribesmen to join us in retaking the city."

As he spoke, fighters readied a weapons stockpile that had been captured only days earlier near the Pakistani border.

Though Khan boasted a day earlier that his fighters had cleared much of the city, he says that almost his entire fighting force had been defeated and captured by late yesterday.

Numerous eyewitnesses and Khan related a tale of Afghan deceit and factional fighting that is sure to spill over into neighboring regions without outside intervention.

Khan sent several hundred of his fighters into Gardez - one of the highest-altitude cities in the country located on an ancient caravan route leading to Pakistan - on Wednesday. Ullah permitted Khan's men to pass through previously manned checkpoints. Later, the fighters were permitted to gather - in the hundreds - beneath the ancient fortress that sits on a hill in the center of the city.

Page: 1 | 2