KABUL: There are two wars in Afghanistan. The American-led campaign against guerrillas proceeds in the mountains and deserts bordering Pakistan, chasing up a rocket attack here, gunfire there. Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters have yet to show they can inflict serious damage.

News from the second war is not so good for the allies because there is not supposed to be a second war. Waged mostly in the north and east, it turns bloodier by the week. Several days ago more than 300 rockets rained into the town of Gardez, killing and wounding more than 100 civilians. On Wednesday shooting and shelling continued near the towns of Shulgara and Sare Pul where fighting has left 12 dead and wounded.

Despite the body count this second conflict receives less attention because it is an internal affair: rival Afghan warlords battling each other for territory and influence, without malice for the west. Usually the combatants swear loyalty to the Americans and offer to help hunt for the Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters.

In fact the two conflicts threaten to spill into each other in a way harmful to the US and British mission. The more mayhem the warlords spread, the more political and military conditions will improve for the guerrillas. Western diplomats in Kabul fret that it was factional fighting which paved the way for Taliban’s rise in 1995.

Gardez is a case study in the dilemma facing the allies. A rickety town 200kms south of Kabul, it had escaped unscathed from Washington’s ‘war on terror’ but in the space of four hours last weekend a rocket barrage tore into residential areas and hit the hospital. At least 25 people died.

The artillery belonged to Pacha Khan Zadran, a Pancho Villa look alike who sports a dyed moustache and ammunition belt across a broad chest. He was appointed governor of Paktia province in January by Afghanistan’s interim government but when his forces approached Gardez, the provincial capital, they were attacked and lost 40 men.

Some villages support Zadran but in Gardez he is regarded as a bandit and many inhabitants were happy that a rival warlord repulsed his forces. The interim government appointed another governor, Taj Mohammad Wardak, who was more acceptable to Gardez.

Zadran has spent the past four months preparing an assault. Interviewed by the Guardian some weeks ago at his base, he promised to regain his job and punish the usurpers. Wardak, the governor, says: “He has a terrible reputation, a lot of blood on his hands even before all this business.” After the rocketing he gave Zadran 10 days to end the stand-off or be hanged.

American forces based on a hill outside the town have urged Zadran to back off, a US military spokesman said, but they avoided close involvement since their priority was to fight the guerrillas, not guarantee security. It was up to the interim government to resolve the problem.

That makes partial sense. Warlord clashes in Afghanistan tend to be within, not between, ethnic groups, with the conflict dynamics buried in tribal and personal issues all but impenetrable to outsiders.

It suits the Tajiks who dominate the government in Kabul to let Pakhtoons fight in the run-up to next month’s loya jirga, a traditional assembly, because that way the more united Tajiks stand a better chance of retaining power.

The American allergy to nation-building, combined with European reluctance to risk soldiers and spend money, means UN calls for peacekeepers to be deployed outside Kabul will go unheeded.

As the warlords come to resemble the Mujahideen who squabbled and fought, so the allies, in local eyes, will come to resemble those other outsiders who stoked mayhem, the Russians.—Dawn/The Guardian News Service.