HERAT, Nov 20: A week after taking the northwestern Afghan city of Herat from the Taliban, warlord Ismail Khan tightened his grip on power on Tuesday, seizing the Iran border from rival Shias and edging them out of town.

While the future of post-Taliban Afghanistan remained in doubt, 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 Hezb-i-Wahdat 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 commander, 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 militiamen into the city after the two groups seized Herat last week following a popular uprising against the Taliban.

After night fell, apparent exchanges of gunfire crackled and red tracer bullets streaked across the sky. The tension has led to a minor run on the afghani currency against the dollar in Herat, bazaar merchants said.

Some soldiers pointed to brand-new weapons carried by many Hezb-i-Wahdat gunmen and said they were supplied by Iran, keen to support Shias. Some of the militiamen, when asked, said they had picked up their guns at the Iranian border.

“We have no evidence they got their weapons from Iran, but it is very likely,” Azimi told reporters.

Hardliners in the Islamic republic are unsettled by the presence of U.S 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 to arming the Northern Alliance in its battle with the Taliban.—Reuters