UN, Aid Agencies Quit Afghan City After Bloody Riots

"All international and some national United Nations staff are being relocated to Kabul," an unnamed UN official was quoted by Agence France-Presse (AFP) as saying.

"They are obviously relocated for security reasons."

The official added that 33 members of about 10 non-governmental organizations were also evacuated, with 61 workers pulled out in total.

Four to seven people were killed and more than 50 injured Sunday as protesters rampaged through Herat after the sacking of self-styled “Emir of Heart” Ismael Khan by Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

About 500 demonstrators ransacked buildings used by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan and three non-governmental groups.

Surveying Damage

As the city was slowly returning to normal Monday, UN staff and aid agencies surveyed the damage to their offices after the violent rampage by Khan supporters.

"Oh my God, what have they done to our office?" said Abdul Karim, an employee of the non-governmental International Organization for Migration whose premises were reduced to a smoldering ruin, according to AFP.

As riots and violent protests erupted, UN staff fled to bunkers as hundreds of protesters looted and burned the Western agencies’ offices before clashing with US and Afghan military patrols.

Gunfire rang out throughout Sunday and American and Afghan forces were on the streets, with US military helicopters flying low over the city. Hospital sources said four people were killed and 53 were injured, mainly by gunshots and shrapnel.

Other sources put the number of killed at seven.

The UN refugee agency also suspended repatriations from nearby Iran following the attack on its office in Herat, a key transit and assistance point.

Televised Appeal

Calm, however, returned Monday after a televised appeal by Khan and a government warning that any more violence would be met by military force.

"People were killed and injured yesterday, the warning by the government and the speech by Ismael Khan are reasons you don’t see more protests and violation today," one police officer told AFP.

"The city is back to normal and shops are open, people have gone back to work and I hope the new governor does more than Ismael Khan for us," said pharmacist Abdul Satar.

Khan governed Herat city and province with an iron fist from 1992 apart from a five-year hiatus during the Taliban era. He has refused to take up a central government post offered by Karzai.

His dismissal marks Karzai’s latest effort, just weeks ahead of presidential elections, to rein in the powerful warlords who control much of Afghanistan outside the capital Kabul.

Khan had been accused of refusing to hand over lucrative duties earned on goods flowing across the border with nearby Iran.

Herat province also saw deadly clashes last month between militias faithful to warlord Amanullah Khan and troops belonging to the governor.

Since Karzai’s US-backed interim administration took office more than two years ago, the president has largely failed to extend its control over the provinces.

Remnants of the ousted Taliban regime continue to wage guerrilla attacks in the south and southeast of the country, despite an effort by 18,500 US-led troops to stamp them out.

Afghanistan has been hit by a wave of attacks in the lead-up to presidential polls set for October 9.

US Troops

In a separately related development, the US military said Monday that twenty-two suspected Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants, including three Arabs, were killed in a fierce gun-battle with US-led forces in Afghanistan.

"Twenty-two anti-coalition militias were killed — three of them were Arabs," military spokesman Major Scott Nelson told a news briefing in Kabul.

Another three suspected militants, including an Arab who’s nationality was not disclosed, were captured in the fighting which took place overnight, he said.

The fighting erupted late Sunday night after about 40 militants armed with AK-47s, rocket-propelled grenades and a global positioning system attacked US soldiers patrolling in Shinkay, a troubled district in southeastern Zabul province, Nelson said.

The troops also sized a video camera and several tapes, but the spokesman declined to disclose their content.

"Our soldiers were out doing a cordon search they were engaged by a large force of anti-coalition militias… around 40," he said. "Skirmishes continued throughout the night."

No coalition soldiers were hurt in the fire-fight which involved two US Apache gun-ship helicopters, he added.

Zabul, which neighbors Pakistan, is a stronghold for Taliban fighters deposed from power by a US-led military offensive at the end of 2001.