http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_14-8-2004_pg7_2
Tribes nearly come to blows over govt support
By Mujeebur Rehman
WANA: Differences among tribesmen over whether to support the government in the ongoing crackdown on militants turned sour as they pulled guns on each other when Ahmedzai Wazir tribes held a jirga on Friday.
"They [elders] nearly came to blows and pointed guns at each other," said a tribal elder from the Khojelkhel sub-tribe. He said the jirga was held to discuss differences over the 36-member committee supervising the lashkar and whether or not to support the government in its fight against foreign militants hiding in South Waziristan.
"It was the most disorderly jirga in Ahmedzai Wazir tribes' history. Thank God that some elders calmed the situation and averted a bloody clash," he added. The Ahmedzai Wazirs, consisting of nine major Waziristan tribes, was sharply divided over the committee's role. Formed two months ago, it was assigned to supervise the tribal lashkar assigned to fight wanted tribesman and Al Qaeda militants.
"The jirga failed to decide if it wanted accept a Shakai-type agreement with the government," the tribal elder said. Three Shakai tribes – Sperkai, Shudyakhel and Khuniyakhel - reached an agreement with the government on July 5 to support the government against local and foreign militants. The agreement helped lift economic sanctions imposed on tribesmen on May 29.
Elders from Ahmedzai Wazir tribes thought a similar agreement with the government could help lift sanctions against them. Tribal elder Malik Behram Khan told Daily Times that the jirga would be held again on Saturday and he hoped it might reach agreement.
Meanwhile, an official from a seminary run by the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, his driver and a security guard were injured when a jeep they were riding in hit a landmine in Shakai on Friday. Maulvi Hasan and his driver were taken to hospital in Peshawar.
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=data/subcontinent/2004/August/subcontinent_August489.xml§ion=subcontinent
US military sees widening crack in Taleban leadership (Reuters)
14 August 2004
KABUL - There are signs of the Taleban leadership "falling apart", a US military spokesman said on Saturday, citing reports this week that a breakaway faction no longer recognises Mullah Mohammad Omar.
The one-eyed Mullah Omar became one of the world's most wanted men for helping shelter Osama bin Laden and his Al Qaeda network until late 2001, when US led forces drove the Taleban militia from power in Afghanistan.
Reuters reported on Monday that a dissident group named Taleban Jamiat Jaish-e-Muslimeen (Muslim Army of the Taleban) had broken away, taking with it about one-third of the Taleban's fighting strength.
"That's a significant development which demonstrates the Taleban are falling apart a little bit on the leadership side," Major Scott Nelson told a regular news briefing in Kabul.
Nelson said the military was still assessing what impact the split was having on the Islamist militants' strategy and operations against US-led forces in Afghanistan.
"That fissure is widening -- we see that. Specifically what that means we're still looking into it," he said.
The new group was being led by Mulla Syed Mohammad Akbar Aga, a 45-year-old commander from the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, Sabir Momin, who was the Taleban's deputy operations commander in southern Afghanistan, told Reuters on Monday.
The rift within the Taleban come hard on the heels of a series of arrests of Al Qaeda members in neighboring Pakistan, suggesting success on two fronts in the US-led war on terror.
There are around 18,000 US-led troops combing the south and east of Afghanistan for Taleban and Al Qaeda members.
Another eight thousand peacekeepers are part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) stationed in Kabul and northern parts of the country.
The peacekeeping force has been beefed up ahead of Afghanistan's landmark presidential election in October, as the Taleban and its allies are expected to intensify a campaign of violence. Close to one thousand people have been killed in the past year, including militants.
Nelson said the US-led forces working with the newly formed Afghan National Army were obtaining more and more information from local people on Taleban movements.
Taleban remnants are believed to have links with Al Qaeda, the group they sheltered from the 1990s, and militant Islamic forces loyal to former Afghan prime minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.