By Brian Williams
KABUL (Reuters) - Afghan authorities arrested two soldiers allied to U.S. forces on Monday for an attack on the security chief of the eastern city of Khost, which neighbors Paktia Province where the biggest ground battle of the latest Afghan War was fought earlier this month.
The arrests highlighted power struggles between Afghan warlords and raised questions about the use by U.S. special forces of near-mercenaries in the battle against defiant Taliban and al Qaeda forces.
A spokesman for Mohammad Ibrahim, governor of Khost province, told Reuters the arrested men were part of a U.S.-trained band who defied efforts to disarm them on Sunday by Khost city's security chief, Sur Gul.
Gul's driver was killed in an ensuing shoot-out in the city center and the band retreated back to a nearby air base where U.S. special forces are stationed.
"There was bad blood between Gul and the men who did not want to give up their weapons," the spokesman said in a telephone interview from Khost.
The men were arrested outside the base at a checkpoint on the road between it and the city.
The base, where an estimated 400 Afghans have been trained, has been attacked three times in the past month. Last week, it was hit by mortar bombs and rocket-propelled grenades.
The Afghans, loyal to an eastern warlord, were used in the U.S-led "Operation Anaconda" which U.S. spokesmen say killed hundreds of rebels in the Battle of Shahi Kot. They received training and weapons and paid about $200 a month.
AMBITIOUS DISARMING PROGRAMME
Khost Province is one of five the Afghan Defense Ministry has identified as possible havens for Taliban and al Qaeda fighters in their bid to regroup for a new offensive on U.S. and Afghan forces.
The ministry has sent 1,000 soldiers to each of the five provinces for action against rebels if they are sighted in the areas.
In its bid to pacify the country, the ministry has also embarked on a sensitive and ambitious program to disarm warlords.
However, with formation of a formal Afghan national army still months away, armed followers of the warlords are often pressed into ad hoc service for battles against rebel pockets.
At Bagram air base just north of Kabul, U.S. military officials had no comment on the Khost incident but pledged to work with the interim administration of Hamid Karzai to restore peace to Afghanistan.
"The threat level remains high throughout Afghanistan. We are going to continue to work with the Afghan interim administration to ensure this country is no longer a sanctuary for terrorists," Major Bryan Hilferty told reporters.
He said Afghan forces patrolling the Shahi Kot area, about 150 km (90 miles) south of Kabul near the Pakistan border, found documents, weapons caches and ammunition dumps used by the mainly al Qaeda fighters of Osama bin Laden, blamed for the September 11 attacks on the United States.
SIGNS OF NEW OPERATIONS
In a sign that new operations were on the horizon, an advance party of 1,700 British troops was due at Bagram in the next few days to join U.S. and other coalition allies in search and destroy missions, mainly in high mountains near Pakistan.
The British troops are mountain and cold weather experts who have trained in the Arctic in Norway and the contingent is expected to be ready for operations by the middle of April.
Afghanistan also moved on Monday to head off al Qaeda operations overseas, canceling Afghan passports issued during the six years of Taliban rule from 1996 until they were ousted last December.
The Interior Ministry said the Taliban, which harbored bin Laden and his followers, issued many passports to them as well as turning over blank passports to be used at will.
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Just what I'd want if I was a terrorist, an Afghan passport.