HERAT - A week after taking the northwestern Afghan city of Herat from the Taleban, warlord Ishmail Khan tightened his grip on power yesterday, seizing the Iran border from rival Shi'ites and edging them out of town.
Tension has risen in Herat in recent days, with rival groups of heavily armed men roaming the town and taking over key Government buildings.
Veteran mujahideen commander Khan's troops moved on the nearby Iranian border on Monday and ejected forces loyal to the Shi'ite Hezb-i Wahdat party in a bloodless show of force.
Khan's men, mounted on four-wheel-drive pick-up trucks, outnumbered Hezb-i Wahdat four to one.
"We told them we were there to disarm them and told them to leave and they did," said Khan's senior military man, General Mohammad Zahir Azimi, in charge of the operation. "Some fled armed, but most handed over their weapons."
Many Heratis have been unnerved by the influx of hundreds of extra Shi'ite Muslim militiamen into the city after the two groups seized Herat last week following a popular uprising against the Shi'ite-hating Taleban.
At night, apparent exchanges of gunfire crackled and red tracer bullets streaked across the sky.
Some soldiers pointed to brand-new weapons carried by many Hezb-i-Wahdat gunmen and said they were supplied by Iran, keen to support its fellow Shi'ites. Some of the militiamen, when asked, said they had picked up their guns at the Iranian border.
Hardliners in the Islamic republic are unsettled by the presence of United States troops in Afghanistan and the likely increase in Western influence on Iran's eastern doorstep.
"The conservative faction in Iran wants to increase instability in Afghanistan to persuade the international community that the country is too unstable to support a longer term presence," said one commander within Khan's forces.
Iran's Defence Minister Ali Shamkhani has admitted arming the Northern Alliance but Herat's new Iranian consul denied special backing for Hezb-i Wahdat, which represents Afghanistan's minority Shi'ite Hazars, descendants of the invading armies of Genghis Khan.
- REUTERS
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