The World : Afghan Rebels Kill Rivals

As many as 30 Afghan rebel military leaders, including more than half a dozen senior commanders, were ambushed and killed by a rival guerrilla group while returning from a strategy meeting in northern Afghanistan last week, rebel sources and Western diplomats confirmed in Islamabad, Pakistan. The killings, the most serious internecine violence reported among the U.S.-backed rebels in years, occurred about 200 miles north of Kabul, the capital, after a meeting of rebel leaders to plan renewed assaults against the Soviet-supported Afghan government. Rebel sources charged that the ambushes were ordered by a commander associated with Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, leader of the most anti-Western guerrilla faction.