Pashtun Uprising Reported d in Afghanistan Prominent Tribal Leader Said to Lead Insurgency in South of Country

By Marc Kaufman Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, November 2, 2001; Page A01

A prominent Afghan tribal leader has begun the first known armed uprising against the Taliban in southern Afghanistan since the U.S.-led airstrike campaign began, fighting off a Taliban attack yesterday and claiming to control part of a southern province, according to his family and media reports.

Hamid Karzai, an influential figure from the leading ethnic Pashtun tribe, said he survived a Taliban attack on a meeting of tribal elders he convened in Uruzgan province, and that his forces captured 12 Taliban soldiers in the skirmish.

Karzai, who is close to Afghanistan's exiled former king Mohammed Zahir Shah, returned to Afghanistan last month to promote a national gathering aimed at forming a broad coalition government to replace the ruling Taliban, according to his brother, Qayum Karzai.

Although any rebellion led by Karzai would seem to be in its infancy, its onset would be welcomed by U.S. officials, who have been eager for the Taliban to come under attack in the Pashtun heartland, where the hard-line Islamic militia is strongest. The Bush administration has been working to foment a Pashtun insurgency in the south to match the military campaign being waged by the Northern Alliance coalition led by ethnic Tajik, Uzbek and Hazara minorities in the north of the country.

Absent a local uprising in the south, some Bush administration officials say they fear the U.S.-led anti-terrorism war could become too closely associated with the Northern Alliance, further cementing support among the Pashtuns for the Taliban. The Taliban is overwhelmingly made up of Pashtuns.

Karzai told the British Broadcasting Corp. yesterday that his forces had been attacked by the Taliban and had fought them off. Another Pashtun tribal leader, Mahalem Abdul Ghader, told the BBC that Karzai's group had withdrawn to the mountains with supporters and local people to start an armed rebellion.

The Taliban ambassador to Pakistan, Abdul Salam Zaeef, also reported that a battle with Karzai had taken place. He said that Karzai was being chased in the mountains and that some of his group had been killed or wounded.

Karzai's brother Qayum, who lives in the Washington area, said he had spoken with Karzai yesterday morning and that he was safe and well protected. "The Taliban and foreign soldiers did not get too close to the meeting -- we anticipated they would come and had good security arrangements," Qayum Karzai said in an interview. "The tribal forces are supporting my brother, and the Afghan people have an enormous amount of weapons to use. They are not running from the Taliban."

Until yesterday, there had been no reports of fighting against the Taliban in the south, and few confirmed defections of local commanders. Another anti-Taliban leader who tried to return last week and recruit Pashtuns to the opposition, Abdul Haq, was captured and executed by the Taliban. Haq's supporters feared that his death would set back the Pashtun opposition, but other Americans and Afghans involved in the anti-Taliban effort said that Abdul Haq did not have significant support inside Afghanistan to match Karzai's.

Zaeef also told the Afghan Islamic Press that four U.S. helicopters had come to Karzai's aid during the battle. But Karzai's brother said the report was false and that Karzai was not receiving American support.

There was no independent confirmation of the battle or Karzai's location.

A U.S. official said that he knew nothing about Karzai's battle with the Taliban, or about the Taliban report that U.S. helicopters were sent in to help. He said the U.S. government is aware of Karzai's effort, however, and knows that he is better armed "than Abdul Haq," who reportedly entered the country with few weapons or soldiers.

Qayum Karzai said his brother entered Afghanistan on Oct. 8 -- the day after the United States and Britain launched the airstrike campaign -- and spent a week in his home village less than five miles from the headquarters of Taliban leader Mohammad Omar in the southern city of Kandahar.

"These are our tribal forces, and we can go in and around the country on our own footing," Qayum Karzai said. "We know the Taliban is not 10 feet tall, and that many Afghans hate what they have done to our religion, our culture and our country."

Hamid Karzai is well educated, speaks fluent English and served as deputy foreign minister during the mujaheddin government of the early 1990s. He was elected the leader of the Popalzai tribe in 1999 after his father, Abdul Ahad Karzai, was assassinated in Quetta, Pakistan. His sons accused the Taliban and the Pakistani secret service of organizing the murder.

The Karzai family at first supported the Taliban in the belief it could help Afghanistan recover from its lawlessness after a 10-year Soviet occupation and civil war, but soon went into opposition. Qayum Karzai said that his family has been opposing the Taliban since 1996, "when the U.S. was still supporting them."

The CIA has sought to encourage Pashtuns to desert the Taliban, using money and offers of future prominence. But the agency has few people who can speak Pashtu, the local language, and reports say it has been relying on Pakistan to make the contacts.

The Karzais, however, have strained relations with Pakistan. Qayum Karzai said that his brother was possibly "safer now in Afghanistan than in Pakistan."

Staff writers Alan Sipress and Thomas E. Ricks contributed to this report.

-- Anonymous, November 01, 2001