- BAGRAM AIR BASE,
Afghanistan (Reuters) - The U.S. general commanding ground forces in Afghanistan
signaled on Tuesday that warlords who helped drive the Taliban from power
could become targets themselves if they threatened the new government.
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- In a blunt warning to a warlord who killed 30 civilians
in a rocket barrage in the eastern city of Gardez on the weekend, but also
aimed at other warlords challenging the authority of Afghan leader Hamid
Karzai, General Franklin "Buster" Hagenbeck said no alliances
were permanent.
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- Using American military power to counter warlord Padshah
Khan Zadran's attack on Gardez, 100 miles south of Kabul, was a policy
decision for Kabul and Washington, but he implied it was an option.
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- "It's true that Padshah Khan was an ally of ours
before, we've had that relationship with a variety of warlords throughout
Afghanistan," Hagenbeck told reporters at Bagram Air Base, the coalition's
Afghan headquarters.
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- "But the old phrase there are no permanent alliances
probably smacks true in this instance."
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- Asked if Padshah Khan remained an ally or had become
a foe, Hagenbeck said: "I would say right now that I would not categorize
him one way or another, I would leave that up to Mr. Karzai."
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- Around 500 rockets rained down on Gardez, the provincial
capital of Paktia province bordering Pakistan, Saturday, threatening to
undermine the uneasy stability in Afghanistan since the fall of the fundamentalist
Taliban last December.
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- Paktia Governor Taj Mohammad Wardak blamed the bombardment,
which coincided with a visit to Afghanistan by Defense Secretary Donald
Rumsfeld, on former governor Padshah Khan, ousted from his post last February
and replaced by Wardak who was appointed by Karzai.
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- Padshah Khan has already been accused of calling in U.S.
strikes on his rivals in neighboring Khost province by claiming they were
al Qaeda or Taliban. More than 50 people were killed in the Khost bombing
at the end of last year.
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- The violence in Gardez infuriated local residents, some
of whom fumed at the U.S.-led international force for only hunting out
remnants of the Taliban, or the militant al Qaeda network, blamed for the
September 11 attacks on Washington and New York.
-
- "I will tell you that our business is to kill and
capture the al Qaeda and when they present themselves as targets we will
do that," Hagenbeck said.
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- He defended the U.S. role in securing stability in Afghanistan
since Washington's offensive against the Taliban for harboring al Qaeda
leader Osama bin laden.
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- "If you look back six months ago before our involvement
there is much more safety and security in this country than there was under
the oppressive and barbaric rule of the Taliban here and I think for the
largest part of the country that is true," he said.
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- Gardez and Ghost had always been fractious, the general
insisted.
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- "We're working with the Afghan interim authority
to sort that problem out," he said.
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- "My view is that right now we are working with the
Karzai administration to see how we can support them in their efforts to
bring peace and security into that area. It's a policy issue and when those
decisions are reached then I'll be able to supply the appropriate military
support."
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