Mazar-e-Sharif skirmishes continue

01/01/2002

By RAVI NESSMAN
Associated Press Writer

YOL ABAD, Afghanistan — Nearly two months after the Taliban were routed from Mazar-e-Sharif, fighting still flares in villages around the northern city as warlords sort out the complex web of Afghan rivalries.

Along both sides of the narrow, dusty road outside the tiny village of Yol Abad blood stains market spots where soldiers were gunned down just days ago. Details of what started the shooting Saturday are murky; that it happened is taken as a matter of course.

Skirmishes are reported several times a week in the region around Mazar-e-Sharif as militias controlled by northern warlords battle one another and even among themselves.

Some aid agencies that rushed back into Afghanistan at the northern city have demanded guarantees of safe passage from local commanders. Others have imposed strict curfews on workers and refused to let them leave the city.

Much of the fighting has been reported in Balkh, just outside Mazar-e-Sharif.

On Monday, Mir Hamza, a local military chief, said the weekend fighting broke out as his troops tried to subdue what he called a band of thieves — rival militia members — robbing travelers on the road to Balkh.

``We are powerless. We cannot stop them because they are a big group and they have powerful commanders,'' Hamza said. ``They do not give up easily.''

Soldiers on the road outside Yol Abad on Monday recounted the start of the fight, saying 50 Pashtun soldiers, once loyal to the Taliban, attacked 20 Uzbek troops walking toward Yol Abad. The Pashtun fighters, who had turned coat under withering U.S. air strikes early in the Afghan campaign, now pledge loyalty to Gen. Rashid Dostum, one of the north's key warlords and interim deputy defense minister.

The gun battle lasted 20 minutes. A soldier from each side died. One fighter from each side was wounded before 200 other soldiers and elders loyal to Dostum rushed in to stop the shooting and arrested many fighters from each group.

The Pashtun soldiers and some residents of the nearby village of Yungarik said the Uzbeks were bandits chased out of the hamlet after robbing and beating residents.

``They were our enemy. They wanted to kill us, so we attacked them first,'' said Ayatullah, a Pashtun commander.

But Agha Mohammad, a local Dostum commander not involved in the battle, said it was all a terrible misunderstanding.

He claimed the Uzbeks were simply trying to walk toward the main road to get a ride to Mazar-e-Sharif when the Pashtuns mistook them for bandits.

While vengeance is long-lived here, Mohammad suggested memories are short.

``The problem has been solved,'' he said. ``We don't have any problems here.''