Warlords Fighting In Afghanistan

The forces of two rival warlords battled for a third day in western Afghanistan on Monday, pounding each other's positions with tank and artillery fire.

Ethnic Pashtun commander Ammanullah Khan accused Ismail Khan, the Tajik governor of Herat, of launching attacks Saturday on several small villages at Zer-e-Koh, about 15 miles south of Shindand air base, where U.S. soldiers are located.

Intense artillery exchanges continued Monday morning, and Ammanullah Khan said eight of his troops were injured. On Sunday, 11 of his men were killed and eight were wounded. There was no word of casualties on the side of Ismail Khan, whose spokesmen were unavailable for comment.

On Sunday, U.S. special forces patrolling just south of the town of Shindand came under fire from unidentified Afghan assailants, prompting them to call in the first reported air strike from a U.S. B-52 bomber since the summer.

The B-52 dropped seven 2,000-pound satellite-guided "smart bombs" after the special forces were trapped by heavy weapons fire, including rockets and mortars fired from armored vehicles, said Col. Roger King, a spokesman at Bagram Air Base, the U.S. military headquarters in Afghanistan. It was unknown who fired on the Americans.

There were no U.S. casualties from the shooting, King said. King and Ammanullah Khan both said they were unaware of any casualties from the U.S. bombing.

The last time B-52s dropped bombs in Afghanistan was in August or September, King said. The huge bombers - many of which are based at the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia - routinely fly patrols over Afghanistan.

King said the B-52 bombing had nothing to do with the factional fighting, saying it came only in response to U.S. forces being fired upon.

Violence flares repeatedly in Afghanistan. Last week, rival warlords Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum, an ethnic Uzbek, and Gen. Atta Mohammed, a Tajik, clashed farther to the east, in the northern province of Faryab.

U.S. forces have also been repeatedly rocketed in the troubled eastern city of Khost, and last week gunmen ambushed a U.S. special forces convoy near the eastern town of Gardez, wounding one U.S. soldier in the leg.

Warlords dominate most territory outside of Kabul, which is patrolled by a 4,800-strong peacekeeping force. President Hamid Karzai's central government has little influence outside the city.

Ammanullah Khan said the fighting in the west began when his troops, which control Zer-e-Koh, came under fire from Ismail Khan's forces manning artillery, mortars, machine-guns and tanks in mountains above the area.

Ismail Khan tried to capture Zer-e-Koh Sunday, sending in several waves of ground troops backed by artillery to try to break through his adversary's front line. The effort failed, according to Ammanullah Khan, who said his forces captured five enemy fighters.

The fighting has forced at least 2,500 people to flee a war-zone outside Zer-e-Koh, Ammanullah Khan said. Zer-e-Koh is about 620 miles west of Kabul.

"We call on the international community to send a delegation to Herat province to disarm both sides," Ammanullah Khan told The Associated Press by satellite phone from the area. "They should come investigate, and they will see who is to blame."

Payman, an official of Ismail Khan, speaking in Kabul and using only one name, blamed Ammanullah Khan's forces for starting the fighting.

Ismail Khan, a former governor, regained control of the western province of Herat after U.S.-led forces ousted the hardline Taliban regime last year. But local Pashtuns complain that his forces have looted the area and oppressed them.

U.S. military officials have tried to broker cease-fires with warring warlords in western and northern Afghanistan. Lt. Gen. Daniel McNeill, commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, met with Ismail Khan twice over the summer to try and calm fighting near Herat city, King said.

"But it's not like you can just wave a white flag and get everybody to stop fighting," King said. "It's going to be a long-term problem and it's going to take a longer-term solution."

By Mike Eckel