Afghan Police Chief Dies In Clash

Elite Squad Kills At Least 5 in City Office Melee

KABUL, June 29 -- The police chief of southern Afghanistan's Kandahar province was shot to death Monday in a violent melee between police officers and an elite Afghan security squad trained by U.S.-led coalition forces.

The midmorning incident, which occurred at the city prosecutor's office, also left the province's senior criminal investigator and at least three police officers dead -- though by some accounts, as many as eight were killed. It was not clear what sparked the incident, but officials said members of the squad tried to forcibly remove a prisoner from custody and a shootout resulted. The guards were working for a private security firm that was contracted out to U.S.-led coalition forces.

The deadly gunfight, which appeared to have no connection to the Taliban insurgents who plague Kandahar, highlighted other problematic sources of violence in Afghan society, even among the various security forces that are part of the internationally backed effort to build democracy and fight Islamist terrorism.

President Hamid Karzai suggested that U.S. forces were trying to protect the attackers by refusing to turn them over to Afghan authorities. In a sharply worded statement Monday afternoon, he demanded they be handed over and said coalition forces should "avoid actions that weaken the government." By evening, officials said 41 members of the squad had been arrested and would be sent to Kabul for trial.

In a statement, the U.S. military command here said there had been no involvement in the incident by any American or other coalition personnel. The statement described the incident as strictly "Afghan-on-Afghan." It did not respond to the comments by Karzai, who is running for reelection and has criticized U.S. and NATO-led forces over various alleged abuses.

Afghanistan is full of weapons and men who are willing to use them for reasons outside the law. The country has a long history of warfare and tribal vendettas, and in recent years the proliferation of private security firms, the persistent power of regional warlords and the spread of corruption and drug trafficking have all added to the violence.

Officials in Kandahar said the guards burst into the prosecutor's office just before noon and demanded the release of a prisoner, who was related to someone from their security company and who was about to be tried on criminal charges of forgery. They said the prosecutor insisted on consulting with the police chief, Matiullah Qati. An argument started and the gunfight ensued, killing Qati, the senior investigator and the police officers.

"It was just a dispute among Afghans. It was not a major incident. There were two groups abusing each other and someone opened fire," said Ahmed Wali Karzai, the president's brother and a senior political leader in Kandahar, speaking by telephone. "It had absolutely nothing to do with the Americans or the coalition. It was just an unfortunate incident."

Other sources in Kandahar, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said there were several other possible motives for the attack, including a shooting incident among Afghan security guards at a U.S. base several years ago and a custody dispute between Afghan and American officials over a recently captured senior Taliban commander.

"This attack was really surprising, because these guards were like special-operations forces," said another political leader by phone from Kandahar. "They were highly trained and highly paid and very smart. Unless they were ordered, it is hard to imagine them doing such a thing."