Afghan rivals in skirmish

Associated Press And The Washington Post

KABUL, Afghanistan – The governor of an eastern Afghan province demanded U.S. Special Forces hand over several rival Afghan allies who allegedly opened fire Sunday on the region’s security chief, killing a bodyguard and wounding two others before reportedly fleeing into an American compound.

Afghan authorities said the assailants were believed to have been allies of the United States and took refuge in the Americans’ fortified airport compound. There was no confirmation from U.S. forces.

The security chief of Khost province, Sur Gul, escaped injury in the attack, the latest in a series of violent incidents in the area involving rival Afghan groups, according to Hazratuddin, intelligence chief of Khost.

Hazratuddin said the assailants opened fire on Gul because the security chief had tried to disarm them a day earlier in the Khost public market.

Khost, located in eastern Afghanistan near the Pakistani border, is a volatile city, bristling with men with guns and carved into areas controlled by warlords. Most of the city is under the control of U.S.-backed warlord Bacha Khan Zardran, but within Zardran’s group there are rival factions.

Meanwhile, the U.S. military has moved a small group of A-10 Thunderbolt ground attack aircraft to this base north of Kabul, marking the first time it has stationed fixed-wing combat aircraft inside Afghanistan in the 6-month-old war.

The ungainly, but highly lethal A-10s, commonly called “Warthogs,” were flown to Bagram Air Base on Saturday night to provide additional fire support for U.S. operations, Army Maj. Bryan Hilferty, a U.S. military spokesman, said Sunday.

Designed specifically for attacking armored vehicles and other “close air support” missions, the A-10 is heavily armored and built to survive direct hits from armor-piercing shells and highly explosive projectiles, according to an Air Force Web site.