U.S. commander meets with renegade Afghan warlord

<br>BAGRAM, Afghanistan (AP) _ The commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan met a renegade warlord to seek the removal of checkpoints hindering troop movements, a U.S. military spokesman said Monday. <br><br>The

Monday, September 9th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

BAGRAM, Afghanistan (AP) _ The commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan met a renegade warlord to seek the removal of checkpoints hindering troop movements, a U.S. military spokesman said Monday.

The meeting late Sunday was held on the same day fighting flared nearby between militiamen loyal to the anti-government warlord, Bacha Khan Zadran, and government-allied forces near the southeastern Afghan city of Khost.

Lt. Gen. Dan K. McNeill, the commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, met Zadran on a road south of Khost to ``discuss the placement of two checkpoints that were impeding the flow of coalition forces,'' said Col. Roger King at Bagram Air Base, the U.S. military headquarters in Afghanistan.

He could not say if the checkpoints were later removed.

Also Monday, tracer rounds were fired near a coalition base at Chapman airfield in Khost, some 90 miles southeast of the capital, Kabul. Coalition soldiers returned fire, King said.

The shots were fired at the base hours after the meeting between McNeill and Zadran, although military officials said they did not believe there was any connection between the events.

McNeill sought the meeting to let Zadran know the checkpoints were starting to interfere with coalition operations and that they needed to be dismantled or he would ``suffer the consequences,'' King said.

There had been reports that U.S. forces were trying to apprehend and arrest Zadran, who has sought to assert control over territories in the southeastern Paktia province in defiance of President Hamid Karzai's administration.

King dismissed those claims, and said they would not arrest Zadran unless he threatened or acted directed against coalition forces.

Zadran, whose gunmen have allied themselves with U.S. troops in past military operations, claims the Afghan president illegally appointed the governor, Hakim Taniwal, in the volatile city near the Pakistani border.

It is one of several flashpoints where local armed factions are vying for power and one of the most active fronts in the U.S.-led war against al-Qaida and the Taliban.

Khost was the scene of several conflicts Sunday, including a small bomb explosion in a music shop and the fighting between Zadran's militiamen and forces loyal to Taniwal. No injuries were reported.

The fighting between the competing factions broke out in the city when Zadran's militiamen attacked a checkpoint controlled by Taniwal's forces, Afghan officials have said.

King said the fighting lasted late into the night, but could not provide additional details.