MAZAR-I-SHARIF, Nov 8: Two military corps dominated by rival warlords are to be combined in a bid to end fighting between their militiamen which has plagued northern Afghanistan, a defence ministry official said on Saturday.

A 12-member defence ministry delegation arrived in the main northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif to implement the changes, said delegation head General Ishaq Noorzai, who is deputy chief of staff at the ministry.

“The delegation will not leave Mazar till the whole process of combining the two military corps is finished,” he told AFP.

The 8th corps, dominated by the ethnic Uzbek Junbish militia of General Abdul Rashid Dostam, will be combined with the 7th corps, dominated by the Tajik Jamiat of General Atta Mohammad. 0 Fighting between Junbish and Jamiat militiamen has claimed dozens of lives this year, with at least seven killed in clashes earlier this week. Dostam and Mohammad on Wednesday assured a visiting UN Security Council delegation that they supported President Hamid Karzai even as fighting continued.

“We discussed the issue today with most commanders and officials of the both corps. They all welcomed the government’s decision and no one disagreed with it,” Noorzai added.

Noorzai said he was confident the plan would work and end the factional fighting which has been a major security headache for Karzai, although both factions support him.

“Now times have changed. Generals Dostam and Atta have to accept the (Afghan) security council decision. We have combined corps in Kabul too and we have had good results,” he added.

Noorzai said it was not yet decided whether the new 15th corps would be based in Mazar-i-Sharif, Dostam’s stronghold of Sheberghan to the west or in Baghlan province to the east.

The commander of the new corps will be chosen and sent from Kabul. Heavy weaponry from both corps will be collected and given to a new national army unit which will come to Mazar in the near future, he said.—AFP