Warlord feuds leave 25 dead

GARDEZ, Afghanistan -- Bitter feuding among warlords turned eastern Afghanistan into a war zone over the weekend, leaving as many as 25 people dead and furious residents accusing the interim regime of being weak, and the United States of being uncaring.

Some say they are even praying for a return of the Taliban, whose heavy-handed rule sent most of the country's warlords into exile.

On Sunday, residents in Gardez began to emerge from shuttered dwellings to bury their dead killed in the previous day's rocket assault.

As many as 25 people died when soldiers loyal to warlord Bacha Khan Zardran fired a torrent of rockets into the city on Saturday, said Gardez governor Taj Mohammed Wardak. Another 70 people were injured.

One man died because the hospital in Gardez couldn't find his blood type. Another two people died while being transferred to the capital Kabul, 120 miles away.

"A small child died because a piece of shrapnel ripped open her abdomen," said Dr. Naqibullah Irfan.

From their heavily guarded compound on the southern edge of the city, U.S. Special Forces brought blood and medicine to the hospital to help treat the wounded, Irfan said.

But people say it's not enough.

They want the special forces to use their military might to rein in the warlords. They say the U.S. response is quick and forceful when they are threatened, but less so when residents come under fire.

"When one mortar is fired near the compound where the U.S. soldiers are there are 20 planes in the sky right away, but when 800 rockets fall on the people of Gardez nothing," said Moukan, a shopkeeper who uses only one name.

Not U.S. mission

The U.S. military spokesman said Sunday that the U.S. forces deployed in Afghanistan are quietly doing what they can to halt factional fighting in the east of the country, but negotiating an end to local feuds is not their primary objective.

"Our mission here is to capture or kill al-Qaida and senior Taliban," said Maj. Bryan Hilferty, the U.S. military spokesman. "Our secondary mission is to help to secure the country."

Hilferty said recent clashes between rival warlords in the east posed a threat to the country's fragile interim government, but halting fighting between warlords was largely the responsibility of the new authorities. "Of course we are working with the Afghan interim administration to help them with security, to help them set up the Afghan army.

But particular factional fighting? I don't think it's for us to get into," said Hilferty.

But the relentless feuding is hurting the U.S. war on terror, driving the Pashtun majority in eastern Afghanistan away from the interim regime and longing for a return to the Taliban, said the governor, Wardak,

He warned that if it continues, U.S. forces could come under attack by the people of the area.