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Warlords Battle in Afghanistan
Wednesday, July 24, 2002
The Associated Press

As a weak new central government seeks to impose law and order and to control potential tax revenues in Afghanistan, warlord rivalries have flared into violence in northern, eastern and western areas of the country among armed factions reluctant to surrender their own share of power and local wealth.

KABUL, Afghanistan -- AP
An Afghan vice president traveled to the western city of Herat to investigate reports of heavy fighting between ethnic Tajik and Pashtun gunmen, the government news agency said Tuesday. It appeared to be the latest flare-up in warlord rivalries that threaten to embroil Afghanistan anew.

Tajik fighters under Herat provinces governor, Ismail Khan, clashed for two days with gunmen of a rival Pashtun commander, Ammanullah Khan, said another news service, the Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press. It gave no casualty figures, although other reports spoke of up to a dozen dead and many more wounded.

Afghan Islamic Press said a cease-fire was agreed to late Monday night through the mediation of central government representatives. Spokesmen for the Interior and Defense ministries in Kabul, however, said they could not confirm the reported clashes.
(More: Afghanistan Peace Organization News Source)
2002 © The Associated Press.

Dan