Firefight shows strong Al Qaeda persistence

Badshah Khan is threatening to use force to remove Governor Dalili, a former intelligence chief for the Northern Alliance and Karzai's fifth appointment for governor of Paktia in as many months.

"We are certain war will be started," says Badshah Khan, sprawled out on carpets under the shade of a chinar tree at his mud-walled compound a mile outside of Gardez. "I don't have any more patience. I will expel all the Northern Alliance from Gardez. It will not be peaceful. It needs fighting."

Badshah Khan also has hard words for Hakim Tanewal, the college professor appointed by Karzai to replace his brother, Kamal Khan Zadran, as governor of neighboring Khost province. To visitors, Governor Tanewal regularly dismisses Badshah Khan with the phrase, "The time of warlords is over."

"They must not call us warlords," says Badshah Khan, leaning forward. "If you call us warlords, we will kill you."

Under pressure from Kabul, Americans have been distancing themselves from Badshah Khan and his men, cutting off pay to most of his forces and conducting most anti-Al Qaeda operations with forces loyal to Governor Tanewal and Khost police chief Mustafa.

But the operation in Ab Khail on Saturday shows that Americans must still rely on the Zadran family, at least on occasion. At Ab Khail, American forces called for hundreds of fighters under the command of Kamal Khan, Badshah's brother, to help surround the enemy compound. Yet just last week, four American tanks showed up at Kamal Khan's compound, the governor's mansion in Khost which he refuses to vacate, and demanded that Kamal Khan's men hand over the weapons and surrender to the new governor, Hakim Tanewal. Kamal Khan refused, and promised to fight if the Americans disarmed him by force.

Kamal Khan says that pro-Taliban elements in Pakistan have begun an extortion campaign against him and Badshah Khan to pay compensation for the deaths of thousands of Pakistani Taliban supporters from the tribal areas along the Afghan border. One group of Pakistanis, including the nephew of top Taliban commander Jalaluddin Haqqani, visited Kamal's home in Miranshah, Pakistan, and said if Kamal Khan didn't pay "ransom" money, then the relatives of the dead Taliban supporters would return and kill Kamal Khan's family.

With the Zadran family increasingly encircled, the chances of a bloody confrontation rise daily. But while many commanders say they haven't been paid by Badshah Khan for nearly seven months, most say they will remain loyal to the only Pashtun leader who fought against Al Qaeda in the early part of the war.

• Material from The Associated Press was used in this report.

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