First signs of civil war emerge in Afghanistan

Thousands of Afghan fighters are reportedly gathering in the west of the country as the first signs of opposition to the new regime appear in Herat.

Gul Agha, the Governor of Kandahar and a supporter of Hamid Karzai’s interim Government, has accused Iran of sending vehicles and weapons to Shiite Muslims in western Afghanistan, who have long been the victims of the country’s Sunni majority.

Herat is ruled by Ismail Khan, a warlord allied to Iran and a long-time enemy of the Pashtuns who rule Kandahar and other provinces in southern Afghanistan.

Some reports today said 20,000 Pashtun fighters began advancing on Herat from the southern regions this week.

Fighters and commanders training with a newly created national army in Kandahar said that 2,000 to 2,500 troops were sent towards the western city in recent days.

The Kandahar Governor has rejected these reports. "We haven’t sent any militias against them," he said. "We are waiting for the interim Government of Prime Minister Karzai. I have been in contact with him. Whatever he says, I will do"

Afghanistan was wracked by internal strife prior to the Taliban’s rule, with rival warlords competing for territory throughout the country between 1989 and 1994.

Hundreds of thousands of civilians died in the fighting, which was largely waged between different ethnic groups.

Herat has long been the centre of Afghanistan’s minority Shiite population, which has historically been oppressed by Pashtun, Uzbek and Tajik warlords, who are all Sunni Muslims.

Many of those warlords are now in power in the UN-imposed interim administration.