KABUL, 21 October 2004 — The Taleban’s supreme leader Mulla Omar has lost the confidence of some of his commanders after the failure of the insurgents to disrupt Afghanistan’s first presidential election, the US military said yesterday.

But a Taleban spokesman denied any rift in the movement. US military spokesman Maj. Scott Nelson told reporters the Taleban leadership was in disarray after a campaign built around rocket attacks and roadside bombs failed to dissuade millions of Afghans from voting in the Oct. 9 poll.

“There has been serious disagreements between Mulla Omar and some of his lower commanders on how (what) strategy to follow up after the elections,” Nelson said.

US-led forces and their allies in the newly formed Afghan National Army adopted more aggressive offensives against the Taleban and their hard-line allies in the weeks before the election. Better intelligence and a strategy of taking the fight to the Taleban paid off with a string of arrests and discovery of planted explosives.

Nelson said Afghan security forces had detained some 100 insurgents on the polling day alone, while US-led forces killed and captured 22 in the two days before the vote.

“There is significant demoralization among the Taleban because they were unable to disrupt the election,” Nelson said.

Taleban spokesman Abdul Latif Hakimi denied any rift in the movement’s leadership and said it was US spin-doctoring.

“This is just propaganda. Our Jihad (holy war) will continue,” he said.

With vote counting still underway, Hamid Karzai looked set to retain the presidency he has held since being placed at the head of an interim government after the fall of the Taleban in 2001.

Karzai’s chief rival Yunus Qanooni said yesterday he would accept the outcome of the presidential poll “in the national interest” despite his allegations of fraud.

“I have made sacrifices for the national interests of Afghanistan and I am ready to make another sacrifice,” the former education minister said.

“Observing the visible fraud in the election, and then respecting the national interest of Afghanistan, is a sacrifice.”

Asked if that meant he would accept the result of the Oct. 9 vote, he replied: “Yes, you understood me well.”

Qanooni has been lobbied intensely by diplomats since he joined calls for a boycott on election day. Senior envoys including EU special representative Francesc Vendrell were still urging him to accept the result yesterday.

The ethnic Tajik favorite of the powerful anti-Taleban Northern Alliance dropped the calls after an international inquiry was set up. But his claims Monday that organizers had “robbed” him of victory through fraud revived fears that he may reject the result and throw the process into chaos.

The fraud claims originally centered around the failure of indelible ink, which was meant to stain voters’ fingers to prevent multiple ballots, but they cover several other alleged irregularities.

Qanooni said the fraud was designed to ensure the victory of “a particular candidate,” a veiled reference to US-backed Karzai, who was widely tipped to win.

“The fraud was not a technical problem, it is a well-organized and deliberate fraud,” Qanooni alleged.

“The goal was to put a particular candidate in power.”