Heavy fighting in southern Afghan province threatens fragile peace

Heavy explosions, mortar and machine gun fire rocked a southern Afghan town, sending up plumes of smoke, in heavy fighting between opposing factions - highlighting the fragility of Afghanistan's newfound peace.

US planes circled overhead but did not intervene in the battle for Gardez, capital of the strategically important province of Paktia. The fighting threatened to complicate US–led efforts to destroy pockets of al–Qa'ida resistance hiding in Paktia's mountains.

The fighting pitted troops loyal to Bacha Khan, a local warlord aligned to Afghanistan's interim administration and working with US special forces, against troops for the town's government council or shura.

At least 15 shura soldiers and about 18 civilians had been killed since the fighting erupted Wednesday, said Haji Saifullah, an elderly and powerful tribesman who heads the council. He vowed that Gardez would never allow Khan to take over.

"No, no, no, we will never accept him. He is a smuggler and a tyrant and a killer," Saifullah said, speaking at his headquarters on Gardez's northern edge.

He thought 10 or 11 fighters were dead on Khan's side, although the warlord's son disputed that, saying they had no casualties.

Khan, a Pashtun tribal leader, is trying to install himself as governor of Paktia despite strong local opposition. Khan is closely aligned to the interim Afghan administration brought to power after the Taliban were routed by US and British bombing.

Khan's appointment as Paktia's governor was confirmed by the interim administration last week. Khan's brother is the administration's minister of frontier affairs.

Khan's forces fired mortars into the town. A taxi was seen ferrying out a wounded fighter, bleeding from a stomach wound, on the road north of Gardez. Shura forces were mounting their defense from an old fortress on a hill in the dilapidated town. The town center was deserted, its shops shuttered.

Saifullah said some of Khan's forces pushed their way into Gardez on Wednesday. Shura troops conducted house–to–house searches for them and seized about 200 prisoners, he said.

An all–out conflict between Khan and the Gardez shura has been brewing for months. Khan accuses shura members of being Taliban and al–Qa'ida sympathizers, which they deny.

In December, Saifullah supporters accused Khan of calling in a U.S. airstrike on a convoy of Gardez shura members by wrongly identifying them as al–Qa'ida and former Taliban members.

Twelve members of the convoy were killed Dec. 21 as they tried to make their way to Kabul to congratulate Hamid Karzai on his inauguration as head of the interim government.

The factional fighting represents a challenge to Karzai's attempts to restore stability to the war–torn country. Karzai has appealed for international support for a larger multinational peacekeeping mission to maintain order nationwide.

In the Afghan capital, Kabul, a spokesman for the Defence Ministry said its forces would not intervene in the fighting. The spokesman, Saranul Mirjan, described the fighting as internal matter between the opposing factions.

Saifullah and police chief Said Isaq said about 30 U.S. special forces troops were in an old fortress to the southwest of Gardez but had told locals they too would not interfere in the fighting. The special forces, according to Saifullah and Isaq, said they were based at the fortress as part of an operation to hunt down al–Qaida members believed to be in mountains west of Gardez.

Khan's forces were laying siege to Gardez from three sides, said Sayed Nooragha, a commander on the town's northern edge. He said fighting was heaviest to the south and west of the town.

Khan's son, Abdul Wali Khan, speaking by telephone from Gardez, claimed his father's forces captured the town prison, a local government office, the market and a nearby village, Zakhera.

He said heavy artillery was being used in the fighting.

Paktia province has been a major target of U.S. military action since the Taliban fell. A powerful Taliban commander, Jalaluddin Haqqani, held sway over much of Paktia where he allowed Osama bin Laden's al–Qa'ida network to establish training camps and use tunnel complexes built with U.S. help during the 1980s Soviet invasion of Afghanistan to house his warriors and hide arms caches.

U.S. warplanes pounded cave complexes at Zawar in Paktia frequently until mid–January, and special forces troops are in the province hunting al–Qa'ida fugitives and seeking intelligence that could prevent new terror attacks.