KABUL, 15 August 2004 — Rival militias clashed in several parts of western Afghanistan yesterday, officials said, ramping up concern about security as the country prepares for landmark elections. One dissident commander claimed 21 people were killed in fighting which broke out in at least three parts of Herat province.
Afghanistan’s National Security Council was to meet later yesterday to decide whether to send government troops to the area, a Defense Ministry spokesman said. The US military also expressed concern, but there was no sign it would intervene.
The latest clashes pitched forces loyal to Herat Gov. Ismail Khan, one of the country’s most powerful warlords, against rivals in the north, east and south of the province.
Amanullah, an ethnic Pushtun commander from Shindand, about 600 kilometers west of the capital, Kabul, said his men seized a nearby Soviet-built air base in an overnight attack. Afghan forces have few aircraft, but the base is home to a militia division believed loyal to Khan, a Tajik. Amanullah said his fighters, armed with machine-guns and rockets, had killed 14 of Ismail’s men and captured another 20. Seven of his own men also died, he said.
One of Amanullah’s commanders, Abdul Karim, said three more of his fighters were wounded, and an Associated Press Television News reporter said three injured soldiers were brought to a hospital in Herat city. Abdul Wahed Tawakali, a spokesman for Ismail, said there was “hand-to-hand fighting” near the base, but denied it had fallen. He had no information on casualties.
In Kabul, Defense Ministry spokesman Mohammed Zahir Azimi said Amanullah’s forces were operating illegally. Asked if government troops would be dispatched in response, he said: “We are waiting for the decision to be made later today by the National Security Council.”
Forces of other dissident commanders clashed with Ismail’s fighters near Karukh to the north of Herat city and in Chishti Sharif, a valley in the Hindu Kush mountains, said Naseer Ahmad Halawi, Herat’s intelligence chief. The clashes are another security headache for American-backed interim leader Hamid Karzai and foreign forces here as they prepare for Oct. 9 presidential elections.
The leadership of Taleban movement appears to be “falling apart” as more and more Afghans turn against the rebels, the US military claimed yesterday.
Two factions have emerged within the hard-line militia, each backing different views of how their insurgency should proceed, American spokesman Maj. Scott Nelson said.
“There’s a fissure developing,” Nelson said. “That’s a significant development which sort of demonstrates that the Taleban are sort of falling apart a little bit on the leadership side.” Nelson declined to give details, saying the military was still trying to work out what impact any lasting split could have on the militants’ operations.
A purported Taleban spokesman said the breakaway faction was called Jaish-e-Muslimeen, or Muslim army, but dismissed it as an insignificant group numbering 10-15 people.
