March 29, 2002	Friday	Muharram 14, 1423

WASHINGTON: Escalating armed conflict between Afghan factions is drawing the US military deeper into the peacekeeping role that the Bush administration has long vowed to avoid.

From the beginning of the war, President Bush has declared that US troops were in Afghanistan on a short-term assignment to root out terrorism, and would not act as constables or “nation- builders.” But as factional tensions have sharpened, US troops have intervened repeatedly to prevent fighting or to halt it once it has started.

Air Force Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in an interview this week that US Army Special Forces have already taken action in more than 10 incidents to “keep peace within the family.”

It remains unclear whether US troops would be inserted into any major inter-Afghan battles that risked sizable American casualties. Yet US officials concede publicly that mediating conflicts between rival warlords or groups is now one of the many roles they have taken on to help ensure security as the country seeks to end decades of war.

“We’ll continue to use our Special Forces and civil affairs teams with local commanders on the ground to try to deal with contentious issues and to discourage conflict among them,” Richard Boucher, the chief State Department spokesman, said on Wednesday.

Officials of allied countries and private Western groups in Afghanistan said they believe that the US troops have become the security force of last resort, like it or not. “In effect, they will be the peacekeepers,” said a senior Western diplomat. “Why not admit it?”

The expansion of their role raises new questions about how long US troops will be tied up in Afghanistan, and whether the commitment could interfere with possible plans for a military campaign against Iraq.

US officials intend to turn over the job of ensuring security to the Afghan army, which they have begun to train. But by the US military’s own estimates, it may be two years before that army is capable of quelling fights between the country’s quarrelsome factions.

Meanwhile, US officials say they believe that the presence of about 5,000 heavily armed American troops in the country is helping deter fighting. But in some cases, warlords have taken up arms, and US troops have had to intervene.

Mark Schneider, senior vice president of the International Crisis Group, a Brussels, Belgium-based think tank that has been active in Afghanistan, said the United States “will be the default security guarantor, at least in the interim,” until a national army is established.

He predicted that this period of US obligation “will get longer and longer,” despite Washington’s predictions about turning the job over to the Afghans.

Few details of the US military role in these incidents were available. But in February, US forces intervened between two rival forces who were fighting south of Mazar-e-Sharif.

As a new interim government has struggled to extend its authority outsi