The Afghan Government was preparing to send troops to a northern province that has come under attack from forces of a regional strongman in a fresh challenge to President Hamid Karzai's authority. The Defence Ministry said a battalion of troops would be sent to the remote northern province of Faryab after forces of the ethnic Uzbek strongman General Abdul Rashid Dostum, who is also an adviser to Mr Karzai, occupied several districts. "The detachments will go anytime today," a spokesman said on Thursday. "If the need arises, we will send more."
Several truckloads of national army soldiers, armed with assault rifles and rocket propelled grenades, were seen at Kabul military airport where a US military transport plane was standing by. The Government is defending the provincial governor, Anayatullah Anayat, as its legitimate representative in Faryab, and warned that if an investigation finds General Dostum had acted against him, it will be deemed "an unlawful act". Mr Karzai's spokesman, Jawed Ludin, said: "General Dostum is an adviser to the President. However, that does not give him the right to deploy forces or get involved in any military operational issues." Deployment of the national army would be "just one measure" to ensure the situation did not worsen, he said. "We would like to ensure security for the people and uphold the authority of the central government." Mr Anayat appealed for the troops after fighting came within 20 kilometres of the provincial capital, Maimana. He said his forces were outnumbered and many had been disarmed by General Dostum's troops. Although he did not have any casualty figure, there were "bound to have been deaths," he said. |