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U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan try to impose
stability
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KABUL,
November 2 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - At least 17 people were
killed or injured in an attack on a bustling marketplace in western
Afghanistan by supporters of a powerful warlord, a local commander said
Saturday, November 2.
Forces
loyal to Herat provincial governor Ismail Khan bombarded a packed bazaar
in the Zirkoh valley near the southern Herat city of Shindad, killing
two and wounding 15, a spokesman for rival commander Amanullah Khan
said, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Abdul
Karim Afghan said fighting between the two Khans erupted as a delegation
representing Amanullah paid a second visit to Kabul, to persuade Afghan
President Hamid Karzai to replace Ismail Khan as governor.
Afghan
said the attack was an attempt by Ismail Khan, an ethnic Tajik, to
harass one of Afghanistan's largest Pashtun communities.
"The
forces of commander Ismail Khan made a rocket attack on innocent
civilians on Friday (November 1). It was very crowded in the bazaar and
the forces of Ismail Khan attacked it using tank rockets," he said.
"A
rocket also hit a house and killed two innocents. They were in their
house. They were not military people."
He
said Ismail Khan's troops then turned their artillery on Amanullah's
forces before retreating from their forward positions.
No
one from the governor's office was immediately available to confirm the
attacks.
Afghan
said a delegation representing Herat's 50,000-strong Pashtun community
had been recalled to the Afghan capital after an earlier meeting, in
which they were promised a comprehensive disarmament program for the
area.
"Attacks
like this on innocent people are against humanity in Islam. We can no
longer tolerate Ismail Khan in charge of Herat and we have asked for a
new governor," he said.
"Our
delegation has been promised a lot. They were promised that all warlords
will be disarmed, which is a good step towards stability and
peace."
The
latest fighting in the west comes only days after a security commission
charged with securing stability in Afghanistan's strategic northern zone
began disarming commanders who have taken the area to the brink of open
conflict.
A
program to remove weapons in the Sholgara area of Balkh province was
initiated following crisis talks between rival warlords Atta Mohammad
and Abdul Rashid Dostam, who share control of the northern zone.
Violent
clashes remain a problem in many parts of Afghanistan where territorial,
ethnic and political differences have been compounded by almost a
quarter century of conflict.
President
Karzai, struggling to exert his control beyond Kabul, last month warned
warlords they would be stripped of their power if they failed to fall
into line.
On
Thursday, October 31, a violent harassment of a minority ethnic group in
northeastern Afghanistan prompted the United Nations to help establish a
special commission to protect the victims, a U.N. spokesman said.
The
commission was set up earlier this month after the U.N.'s High
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) confirmed attacks on ethnic Gujurs in
Takhar province, Manoel e Almeida da Silva told reporters.
Gujurs,
a nomadic people who live in the three northeastern provinces of
Baghlan, Badakhshad and Takhar, number just 100,000 in Afghanistan.
"The
UNHCR has verified the harassment, which includes house burning,
physical violence and restriction of people going to market," e
Almeida da Silva said.
He
said the commission was headed by local commander General Ghani, who
told a recent meeting of community elders in Takhar that anyone found
guilty of ethnic-related intimidation would be brought to justice.
Da
Silva said discrimination against the Gujurs was visible even as elders
discussed the problem at the meeting in the village of Khushdesh.
"One
elder complained of the Gujur people occupying their forest, he said
'why don't they come down and live in the village with everyone else?'
"The
Gujurs replied that if the government would give them flat land, they
would move down from the mountain."
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