Afghan warlord vows to keep fighting

KABUL, Afghanistan -- An Afghan warlord who led the worst factional fighting since the fall of the Taliban vowed Sunday to fight rather than step down as governor of an eastern province. In the north, warlords agreed to create a "security belt" to keep unauthorized weapons out of a major city. \nUnder a plan reminiscent of stories about taming the American Wild West, travelers entering Mazar-e-Sharif will have to check their weapons upon entering -- getting them back only on the way out. Checkpoints encircling the northern city will keep out guns under a pact by warlords to create a security force run by the central government, not local militias, an official said Sunday. \nSince the fall of the Taliban in November, warlords have been reasserting their authority in several regions. The interim government led by Hamid Karzai has been working to extend its influence and reduce the role of the militias. \nYet with no national army, Karzai's administration has little power to impose peace on feuding warlords. \nAt a news conference Sunday in eastern Afghanistan, warlord Bacha Khan said he has 6,000 fighters ready to do battle again with forces loyal to the town council, or shura, of Gardez, who oppose his appointment as governor of surrounding Paktia province. \n"They are no town council," thundered Khan, with a bandoleer of bullets across his chest. "They are an al Qaeda council and a Taliban council." \nHe added: "We are ready to fight al Qaeda today, tomorrow or any time." \nGardez shura leaders deny being al Qaeda or Taliban members and accuse Khan of being unscrupulous and corrupt. \nFighting between the two sides in January killed at least 60 people. The town council's refusal to accept Khan, whose appointment was confirmed by the government only after he had declared himself governor, threatens efforts by Karzai's administration to extend its authority. \nThe fighting ended with a cease-fire. Khan and shura members held talks with the government in Kabul, the capital, this weekend to seek a longer-term solution. \nBut Khan later said he would not step down if Karzai appoints another governor. \nThe efforts to extend the central government's authority continued as refugees in Pakistan Sunday revealed the arrest of a prominent Taliban official. The reported arrest coincided with Friday's surrender of Taliban Foreign Minister Mullah Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil, the highest Taliban official known to be in custody. \nMullah Siddiqulla, a one-legged senior official in the Taliban's Irrigation Ministry, was arrested by Pakistani security officials Friday at the Harkat refugee camp near Peshawar, close to the border with Afghanistan, refugees at the camp said Sunday. \nPakistani officials refused to confirm the arrest. \nAfghan authorities say Muttawakil, now held by the U.S. military, should be put on trial to answer for crimes committed during the Islamic militia's rule. \nAs a former Cabinet minister, Muttawakil could provide information about the movements of al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar in the regime's final days. Both men remain at large. \n"This is a moment that we have been waiting for -- to make sure that these individuals face trial, either in Afghanistan or outside Afghanistan, for their actions and deeds in the past," said Omar Samad, an Afghan Foreign Ministry spokesman. \nMeanwhile, Kandahar province's governor said Afghans will accompany U.S. forces on some future operations to avoid a repeat of the commando raid north of Kandahar last month when U.S. troops captured the wrong people and, Afghans allege, killed a number of innocents. \n"To avoid any misguided military operation, we have made it a rule that in any future U.S. operation which is conducted on the basis of local Afghan intelligence, people from Kandahar administration would be included," Gov. Gul Agha said. \nThe Pentagon first said the Jan. 23 raid was an attack on an al Qaeda weapons dump, and that troops killed about 15 people and captured 27 Taliban and al Qaeda members. But after Afghans complained that they were wrongly targeted, the U.S. military acknowledged that none of the 27 prisoners was al Qaeda or Taliban and released them. \nThe U.S. says it is investigating whether any of those killed also were the wrong people. \nA reinforced "security belt" around Mazar-e-Sharif was among the new elements hammered out in a high-level meeting of the area's three main militias, said Sayed Noorullah, head of the interim government's foreign affairs office for northern Afghanistan. \nEnvoys agreed last week to withdraw their fighters from the city and create a 600-member security force under the interim government. The latest meeting was intended to draw in the faction's leaders, including ethnic Uzbek commander Gen. Rashid Dostum and ethnic Tajik chief Atta Mohammad. \nThe third leader, Mohammad Mohaqqeq of a Shiite Muslim bloc, did not attend the session but sent a deputy, Noorullah said. All three leaders have posts in the interim government cabinet. \nMeanwhile, in a possible conciliatory gesture to the U.S., Iran closed the offices of former Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a former Afghan prime minister living in exile in Iran who has opposed the interim Afghan government, one of his aides said Sunday. \nIranian officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Washington has accused Iran of trying to destabilize Afghanistan's fledgling administration, saying Tehran gives refuge to anti-government figures or supports them in Afghanistan. Iran has denied the accusations.