Afghanistan Arrests Warlord After Battle

AP Wire | August 28 2004 | PAUL HAVEN/AP

[knighthawk]

KABUL, Afghanistan -- A renegade Afghan warlord has been arrested and brought to the capital by the central government, just weeks after his troops clashed with militiamen loyal to a powerful regional governor, officials said.

Amanullah, a Pashtun warlord who goes by only one name, was brought to Kabul on Friday from the western city of Herat, said Jawed Ludin, a spokesman for President Hamid Karzai. Ludin said Amanullah agreed to the transfer, but officials speaking on condition of anonymity said he had little choice and was essentially being kept under arrest.

"He does not have the freedom to go back. He is in custody," said a senior Afghan official.

Government officials indicated that the move against Amanullah was part of efforts to eliminate private armies that have faced off in several Afghan provinces in recent months, compromising security for Oct. 9 national elections.

Amanullah and Khan swear allegiance to Karzai's government, but both often act in their own interests. Neither has agreed to disarm their troops as part of a slow-going nationwide program to demobilize tens of thousands of private soldiers.

Dozens were killed in fighting that broke out earlier this month between militiamen loyal to Amanullah and those that answer to Herat Gov. Ismail Khan, an ethnic Tajik strongman who rules the city with an iron fist.

Ludin would not comment on widespread speculation that Khan might be removed from power, but he said the action against Amanullah was one in a series of steps that will unfold in the coming days.

"What happened to Amanullah was part of a wider plan to take all necessary measures to secure long-term stability in the region," Ludin said.

Separately in southern Zabul province, U.S. and Afghan soldiers conducting a sweep arrested 22 suspected Taliban after a firefight in a forbidding mountain area.

No casualties were reported in the fighting, which Gov. Khial Mohammed told The Associated Press broke out on Friday and was continuing on Saturday.

U.S. military spokesman Maj. Scott Nelson confirmed operations in Zabul and Ghazni and said 22 Taliban suspects had been arrested.

The fighting between militiamen alarmed Kabul and the United Nations and underscored the need to improve security ahead of the landmark elections. It also prompted U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to call for an urgent increase in international forces in Afghanistan.

At one point, Amanullah's men took a village on a hillside overlooking Herat city, the main population center in the west of the country, the greatest threat yet to Khan's rule.

The men reached a truce after the U.S. military sent warplanes to the region to make clear that further fighting was not acceptable.

Karzai rushed hundreds of troops from the Afghan National Army to an air base in Herat to act as a buffer between the two sides.

In eastern Afghanistan, suspected Taliban rebels opened fire Friday on a convoy of trucks bringing supplies to a U.S. military base in eastern Afghanistan, killing a driver and injuring his assistant, said Nashin Uddin, an aide to the local Afghan National Army commander in Khost province.

The attack occurred in Mando Zayi district as the convoy made its way to Camp Salerno, one of several smaller forward bases housing coalition soldiers.

Also Friday, one militiaman was killed and two injured when Afghan National Army soldiers opened fire on a car in central Ghazni province, apparently when it failed to stop at a checkpoint, Ghazni Gov. Asadullah Khalid said.

Some 18,000 U.S. troops are in Afghanistan to hunt down al-Qaida and Taliban fighters, and to help ensure security for the presidential elections, which the Taliban have vowed to disrupt.

[knighthawk]

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