Afghan Warlord’s Militia Seizes Regional Capital

More than 600 fighters loyal to powerful Afghan warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum seized control of the northern provincial capital of Maymana on Thursday, forcing the U.S.-backed governor to flee, Afghan Interior Minister Ali Jalali said.

One person was killed and 15 were injured when a crowd stormed the Faryab provincial governor’s offices, Jalali said. A Dostum spokesman described the event as a demonstration, but the interior minister said the demonstrators probably were Dostum’s soldiers.

Gov. Enayatullah Enayat was reported to be safe at Maymana’s airport Thursday night.

About 750 Afghan army troops landed at Maymana’s airport and moved into the city, Jalali said, and government and militia forces were both present in Maymana without major conflict.

Jalali added that the conflict in the north was triggered by the decision of Hashim Habibi, a former Dostum commander in Faryab province, to publicly pledge his loyalty to the central government.

There were reports, the interior minister said, of scores of government soldiers defecting to Dostum’s side.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai spoke to Dostum by telephone Thursday, but failed to resolve the crisis. “He said he was loyal to the central government,” Jalali said. “But after all he did? It means he’s violated many things.”

The clash demonstrates how difficult it is for Afghanistan’s central government to curb the power of the warlords, who have been accused of reaping billions of dollars through extortion and the heroin trade.

It also raises the question of whether Afghanistan’s national elections, scheduled for September, will be free of violence and intimidation.

Most of the U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan are deployed along the border with Pakistan, where they are engaged in the hunt for Osama bin Laden and other Al Qaeda leaders.