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Fresh Clashes in North, East of Afghanistan
Monday, February 18, 2002
By Stuart Grudgings
Nampa-Reuters

Some officials said that the approach of the Muslim Eid festival next week could be behind the attacks because people wanted money for celebrations.

Fresh fighting has erupted in northern Afghanistan between rival ethnic factions in the interim government while tribal forces clashed in the east, aid officials and reports said on Sunday.

The fighting casts fresh doubt on the ability of the new government to hold together its loose coalition of old enemies and ensure security in the war-shattered country.

A regional commander of one of the northern factions told Reuters the fighting had finished, but another source said a force from one of the groups was preparing for another attack in the town of Khulm, about 50 km east of the main northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif.

One official, citing an aid worker in the town, said a warehouse belonging to Irish group GOAL, was hit on Saturday night during the clash.

He said about 30 people were injured in the latest flare-up of violence between a mainly ethnic Uzbek force led by warlord and deputy defence minister Abdul Rashid Dostum, and a mainly ethnic Tajik faction loyal to Defence Minister Mohammad Fahim.

Some 40 members of the factions were killed in fighting in recent weeks, raising fears of full-scale conflict between groups backing two of the interim government's top defence officials.
(More: Namibian.com News Source)
2002 © Reuters, Ltd.

Dan