http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1087596610954&call_pageid=968332188854&col=968350060724KABUL—Warlords have overrun a provincial capital in central Afghanistan, forcing the governor to flee, in the latest challenge to President Hamid Karzai's authority in a country which Amnesty International warns is facing outright civil war.
Fighters armed with machineguns and rocket-propelled grenades seized Chagcharan, the main town in remote Ghor province, 565 kilometres west of Kabul, a leader of the offensive and a government official said. Defence ministry spokesman Gen. Zahir Azimy said Chaghcharan was "completely under the control of the forces of Abdul Salaam Khan" and that government troops had withdrawn.
Ghor Governor Mohammed Ibrahim fled Chagcharan to the western city of Herat, leaving his deputy and a group of nominally loyal militiamen and police to regroup in a nearby village.
The attack Thursday, in which 10 people were reportedly killed, was further evidence of deteriorating security ahead of key elections scheduled for September.
It coincided with Karzai's return from the United States, where he and President George W. Bush gave what many analysts believed was an overly rosy assessment of Afghanistan's progress since U.S.-led forces overthrew the Taliban in late 2001.
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Our "success" overwhelms me. :sigh: