AFGHANISTAN: An Afghan cabinet minister was killed in the western city of Herat yesterday, provoking some of the fiercest factional fighting in years that left more than 100 dead, a commander said.
Civil Aviation Minister Mirwais Sadiq, son of powerful Herat provincial governor Mr Ismail Khan, died after a rocket-propelled grenade hit his car in the centre of the city, Mr Khan's spokesman said.
Reports from both factions suggested an intense struggle for control of the city had erupted between forces loyal to Mr Khan and those of the central government in Kabul.
Residents reported hearing explosions and heavy gunfire late into the evening.
Mr Khan's spokesman, Mr Ghulam Mohammad Masoan, blamed Mr Sadiq's killing on forces loyal to a senior government commander in the province, Mr Zahir Nayebzada, who was recently appointed by President Hamid Karzai. He said it was the result of "a personal rivalry".
Mr Khan, an Islamic hardliner, has been at odds with Mr Karzai's US-backed government for failing to hand over tens of millions of dollars of customs revenues from Herat, which controls the bulk of Afghanistan's trade.
A veteran of the struggle against Soviet rule in the 1980s, Mr Khan professes loyalty to the President but is accused of running a personal fiefdom in the west. President Karzai's spokesman, Mr Jawed Ludin, said the defence ministry had ordered the two sides to stop fighting immediately and said government troops would be sent to restore order. He said any failure to halt the fighting would be dealt with "severely".
A United Nations spokesman said its 48 staff in the city were safe. Around 100 US soldiers and State Department personnel are also deployed in Herat as part of one of the US military's provincial reconstruction teams.
Meanwhile, Pakistan's army declared a ceasefire yesterday with suspected al-Qaeda fighters near the Afghan border to allow tribal elders to try to negotiate the militants' surrender.
The army says hundreds of al-Qaeda suspects and their Pakistani tribal allies are surrounded in the desolate mountains but added fighting had subsided yesterday after a week of clashes.
Regional security chief, Brig Mahmood Shah, said the elders would demand that any captured soldiers be released and the militants surrender.
He said there was a temporary ceasefire in operation, with no helicopter gunships or heavy artillery being used.
Local officials said around 30 soldiers and almost as many militants may have been killed since Tuesday. They said 13 civilians were killed on Saturday when their vehicles were fired on by helicopter gunships, and two Chechen militants were killed yesterday after trying to break through an army cordon.
The battle, involving 5,000 troops, was the biggest Pakistan has ever waged in its semi-autonomous tribal border lands and is part of a major push to sweep foreign militants from the region and catch al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.