Enhanced Security for Afghan City

Wearing bright red insignia, members of a new government-backed security force expanded patrols Tuesday in northern Afghanistan’s biggest city in a move to bring stability to the volatile region.

Thousands of motley dressed militiamen still prowl the streets of Mazar-i-Sharif with Kalashnikov rifles and rocket-propelled grenades, but under the accord creating the force, the region’s main warlords are to withdraw their forces from Mazar-i-Sharif and demobilize all but a few of the fighters.

A pullout by warlords would be an important step in Afghanistan’s efforts to restore stability after 23 years of fighting. Factional violence continues to break out two months after the fall of the Taliban, and even when there is no shooting, tensions are high among factions jockeying for control.

Talks continued Tuesday on resolving tensions in the eastern town of Gardez, where two days of factional fighting last week killed at least 61 people.

Ending such conflicts is key to interim Prime Minister Hamid Karzai’s attempts to solidify his government’s authority. Afghanistan has no national army, and an international peacekeeping force is limited to Kabul, the capital.

On Tuesday, Karzai said in a televised address that the outbursts of fighting are led by people who “want to sabotage the security of Afghanistan,” adding “all those efforts will fail.”

The Mazar-i-Sharif withdrawal was expected to begin Tuesday but was postponed until Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum, leader of one of the main militias and the country’s deputy defense minister, returns from abroad. But several key Dostum aides said his faction supports the agreement.

The security force leader picked by the interim government, Gen. Mohammad Isa Eftakhouri, said he hopes to have the militias out of the city within 10 days, after which the task of disarming civilians will begin.

The security force is to include men from each of the region’s three main militias--Dostum’s, his rival Ata Mohammed’s and a third faction under Haji Mohammed Mukhaqiq. Each represents a different ethnic or cultural group.

Whether that participation will ensure that the militia commanders demobilize and disarm their tens of thousands of fighters is “our major worry,” Eftakhouri said.

Late Tuesday, Kabul television reported that Karzai’s administration had restored the 1964 constitution of former King Mohammad Zaher Shah.