Afghan Renegade Continues Advance Despite Talks

[swag]

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=4794379

By Sayed Salahuddin
KABUL (Reuters) - An Afghan strongman whose forces have overrun a northern province issued a stark warning to the U.S.-backed president on Friday -- fire the defense and interior ministers or your government will fail.

Even as a delegation led by Deputy Defense Minister General Mohibullah met General Abdul Rashid Dostum to urge him to withdraw his fighters from Faryab province, the militia advanced further having taken the provincial capital on Thursday.

[w13rd0]

1. Dostum...

...interesting. He was in command of the division that perped mass killings and cover-up...

[starroute]

2. It's an Uzbek vs. Tajik thing

Addurrashid Dostum is an Uzbek warlord and is (or was) the Afghan deputy defense minister. The defense minister, Mohammed Qasim Fahim, is a Tajik general. The Tajiks have held most of the key posts in the Afghan government, and the other ethnic groups have resented this. Dostum and Fahim have been particular enemies.

The last I knew, Fahim's brother, Mohammed Ustad Atta, was the governor of the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, where Dostum had his base. Atta was trying to retake territory from the warlords, and Dostum kept attacking him (in October 2002, February 2003, March 2003, May 2003, July 2003.)

I haven't followed the situation closely since things started blowing up in Iraq, but it looks as though Dostum feels he's powerful enough to try to force Fahim out of the government. This has been the major ongoing conflict within the former Northern Alliance, and that it's coming to a head now is significant.