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| Afghanistan |
| Afghans clash after report U.S. holds warlord |
| 2002-09-08 |
| Three people have been killed in fighting in an eastern Afghan city after local radio reported that U.S. forces had arrested a renegade warlord, a Pakistan-based Afghan news agency reported. The warlord, Padshah Khan Zadran, quickly denied the report carried on the local radio station in the town of Khost, saying he had only held talks with a U.S. delegation. "But that's okay. Go ahead and shoot it out. Don't mind me... AIP said several people were also wounded in the clashes between forces loyal to Zadran and those of provincial governor Hakim Taniwal in Khost. Fighting erupted in parts of the city where Zadran's supporters were in the majority, including the areas around the governor's house, the provincial guest house and customs house. AIP quoted witnesses as saying the rival fighters used rocket grenades and small arms. Just your run-of-the-mill argument among Pashtuns... "The Khost radio report that I have been arrested by U.S. forces is wrong," Zadran was quoted by the AIP as saying. "I am free and am at present at my ancestral village. I had talks with a U.S. delegation who met me in an attempt to remove differences between (President) Hamid Karzai and me. They asked me to sit at a negotiation table with Hamid Karzai but I told them that unless Hamid Karzai fulfils the promises he made with me, I will not talk to him." "Yeah. Who does he think he is, the president or something?" A government official in Khost, Haji Mohammad, told Reuters he had heard Zadran had been surrounded by U.S. forces, but not that he had been arrested. It's way past time to arrange a "terrible accident" for this guy... |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |