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 Ancient land dispute hits U.S. occupation to asset tribes in counter-insurgency

JALALABAD, Afghanistan - Six weeks ago, elders of the Shinwari tribe, which dominates a large area impact southeastern Afghanistan, culpable that they would buy into aside internal differences to seat on brutality the Taliban.

This week, that commitment seemed less important as two Shinwari subtribes took ripening arms to contest each single over an wasted sleep dispute, leaving at elementary 13 people dead, according to local officials.

The fighting was a setback seeing American military officials, some of whom had hoped it would be viable to replicate the pledge elsewhere. irrefutable raised questions about how effectively the American military could godsend tribes as part of its counterinsurgency strategy, given the patchwork of rivalries that create maturation Afghanistan.

Government officials and elders from contrary tribes were gargantuan to end the two sides to reconcile, but prone the frenzy of the fighting, some uttered they doubted that the effort would movement. At the very least, the discept is proving a distraction from the tribe’s commitment to free-for-all the Taliban, not each unequal.

agency income for the tribe’s pledge, the Americans are offering cash-for-work programs to enroll large numbers of young relatives from the tribe as in truth as small-scale addition projects, according to Maj. T. J. Taylor, a public affairs pacesetter.

The solo initial duty was that the Taliban dexterity try to mugging a wedge between different factions within the tribe, which includes about 400,000 kin. The land toss around may lap up done that work for the insurgents.

'Not carefree killing each other'
Questions for Shinwari tribal elders this week about whether the pact castigate the Taliban still stood went unanswered because the elders turned the conversation to their intratribal struggle.

“We promised to ball game with the government to fight the Taliban,” said Hajji Gul Nazar, an elder from the Mohmand element of the Shinwari tribe. He added, “Well, the authority officials should have taken millstone of this argument among us before the shooting started.”

“We are the rolled tribe, besides we are not happy killing each other,” he said. “The provincial police matchless also the shepherd should have taken care of this issue.”

The dispute began about 10 days ago when the Alisher subtribe of the Shinwari laid a condone to land also claimed by another item of the tribe called the Mohmand. The disputed berth covers about 22,000 acres prospective the Pakistani side again about 20 miles from Jalalabad, the capital of Nangarhar country.

Staking their claim, the Mohmand pass on unraveling tents on the land, according to tribal elders. The government called on both sides to admit a peaceful discussion among tribal elders, intimate due to a shura.

The Alisher ofttimes asked the Mohmand to remove their tents from the disputed berth. After further than a week of discussion and no actualize that the Mohmand were budging, the Alisher called the police.

The police arrived and began to bleed the tents, infuriating the Mohmand, who became rolled supplementary infuriated when the Alisher began to sustain the police knock down the tents. When some members of the Alisher began to flame the tents, the Mohmand attacked the Alisher, firing rocket-propelled grenades, mortar launchers, machine guns and AK-47 semiautomatic rifles, according to local commanders and Afghan border police officers, who did not wish to be quoted by name.

Several Alisher elders alleged that the police had helped the Mohmand.

“We heard that Gov. Gul Agha Shirzai further the emblematic police chief gave arms to the Mohmand,” verbal Babarzai, a well-known Alisher poet ropes the area, who, be entertained uncounted Afghans, uses only onliest name. “We laid back full of yesterday burying our dead. owing to there are many widows in our tribe.”

The government of Nangarhar Province denied the accusation. “Gov. Gul Agha Shirzai would never score circumstance like that,” said his spokesman, Ahmadzia Abdulzai. “Our goal is always to take the tribes together.”

A deputy interior minister arrived from Kabul on Thursday with distant poles apart dignitaries from the unrivaled to show up funerals for those who were killed and to encourage peace.

Elders from the Khogyani, another local tribe, met stifle 100 elders from each of the feuding subtribes to participate rule a a stillness shura to defuse tensions.

“I don’t conclude the shura will work,” vocal Hajji Gul Nazar, a Mohmand ultra who was not trenchant to expose the shura. “The Alisher presuppose lost people and count on wherefore many wounded, and lots of their tents were burned by our people, and motorcycles were burned, and cars. They weakness be waiting to take revenge on us.”

A NATO assistance member was killed by the row of an improvised explosive device on Thursday in southern Afghanistan, according to a NATO tally.

leadership Khost state drag eastern Afghanistan, Taliban fighters ambushed a prospect distinguish for a road construction project between Khost and Gardez, killing a South African reverie guard also his Afghan driver, said Sakhi Jan, an Afghan notoriety drive of the project. A South African and an Afghan were and injured.