U.S. Mulls Security Assistance for Afghanistan

Feb. 19, 2002 -- Amid growing concerns over the precarious security situation in Afghanistan, a U.S. general has begun a mission to help the country's interim administration set up a new Afghan national army.

In the Afghan capital of Kabul this week, Maj. Gen. Charles Campbell, chief of staff of the U.S. Central Command, has held talks with Afghanistan's interim leader, Hamid Karzai, and interim Defense Minister Mohammad Fahim to assess the extent and sort of U.S. aid that may be required to form and operate an Afghan national army.

In a country where an estimated 700,000 Afghans remain armed after more than two decades of civil war, and where allegiances still lie with local warlords or tribal chiefs rather than the central administration in Kabul, there have been growing concerns over Karzai's ability to maintain security in Afghanistan.

The moves to form a modern army loyal to Kabul came as U.S. warplanes, in an apparent shift in military strategy, targeted warring Afghan militia forces over the weekend rather than pockets of Taliban and al Qaeda resistance.

Defending the Interim Government

U.S. Central Command issued a statement on Sunday saying the confrontation began at approximately 2:30 a.m. ET on Saturday, after hostile enemy forces set up a roadblock on a primary roadway.

"When Coalition Forces attempted to pass through the roadblock, enemy forces opened fire, killing one Afghan and wounding three. Subsequently, Coalition Forces called in an airstrike on the enemy positions — U.S. strike aircraft responded, dropping precision guided weapons on the designated targets," the statement read.

It went on to say that U.S. aircraft then made a follow-up strike on Sunday, dropping more precision guided weapons on the targets.

The strikes apparently marked the first time the U.S. military has defended the Karzai administration since the military campaign in Afghanistan began on Oct. 7.

Recent clashes between rival warlords in northern and eastern Afghanistan appeared to have placed the U.S. military in the position of having to defend Karzai, who came to power last December.

The International Security Assistance Force currently in operation in Afghanistan has 4,700 troops and a mandate that only covers the area around Kabul.

But in recent days, Karzai has said he would ask for the mandate of the 17-nation ISAF to be extended to cover areas outside Kabul.

Two British Paratroopers Sent Home

Karzai's attempts to expand the ISAF mandate comes as Afghan and British officials investigate a claim that British troops in Kabul shot dead an Afghan civilian as he was taking his pregnant sister-in-law to a hospital on Saturday.

Two of the British paratroopers accused of opening fire from a Kabul observation post were recalled to Britain today for questioning, a spokesman for the ISAF in Kabul told reporters. Another four paratroopers were taken out of the "theater of operation," according to a spokesman for the British Ministry of Defense.

While the Afghan family said they were unarmed, British troops said they returned fire during the incident.

Amaun Isaq, 20, was killed by a gunshot wound to the head on Saturday and his sister-in-law, Faria, gave birth that night.

No weapons were found at the scene of the incident.

Coming in the wake of growing reports of civilian casualties across Afghanistan, the latest developments have sparked fears that the initial good will enjoyed by international peacekeepers might be running low.

Investigation Into Assassination

Meanwhile, a ministerial commission appointed by the interim Afghan government has begun investigating the motives behind last week's assassination of Abdul Rehman, the former Afghan civil aviation and tourism minister.

In an interview with Reuters today, Mir Wais Sadeq, interim labor and social affairs minister, said three of the suspects were being interrogated in Kabul and the commission was awaiting the deportation of three other suspects from Saudi Arabia.

Initial reports last week said Rehman had been killed by a crowd at Kabul airport enraged by delayed flights to the Muslim holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia.

But Karzai later said it was a planned attack and identified Abdullah Jan Tawhidi, the head of political affairs of the Intelligence Department, and Gen. Qalandar Beg, a deputy defense minister, as two of the chief suspects.

Both men had boarded a flight to Saudi Arabia from Kabul, Karzai said. Another suspect, an attorney identified only as Halim, was also believed to be in Saudi Arabia.

Although Sadeq told Reuters that two of the suspects had been arrested in Saudi Arabia, a local paper today quoted Saudi Interior Minister Prince Nayef as saying the kingdom had no information on the murder suspects and the Saudi government was not holding any of them.

The men are believed to be from the mainly Tajik Jamiat-i-Islami faction and Karzai has vowed to deliver justice in the assassination case.

Report: Turkey Arrests Al Qaeda Suspects

In other developments:

Turkish police have detained three suspected members of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network, according to a report in the state-run Anatolian news agency. The suspects were Jordanian, Saudi and Syrian nationals and were detained in eastern Turkey while trying to illegally enter the country from neighboring Iran, the report said.

Troops loyal to warlord Ahmed Rashid Dostum in northern Afghanistan are on a manhunt for a senior Taliban official who is believed to be in the mountainous district of Sar-i-Pul in northern Afghanistan. Dadullah, the former Taliban deputy defense minister who goes by one name, allegedly escaped from Kunduz in northern Afghanistan in November.

Lawyers for the families of an Australian and two Britons being held at a U.S. detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Washington claiming their clients' detentions without trial violated the U.S. Constitution. David Hicks of Australia and Asif Iqbal and Shafiq Rasul from Britain were detained in connection with the U.S. military in campaign in Afghanistan.

An international effort is under way to help transport thousands of Afghan pilgrims to Mecca for the hajj, or annual pilgrimage, after Afghan authorities, scrambling to cope with irate pilgrims held up at the Kabul airport, appealed for help.