KABUL, BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan

Gunmen opened fire Sunday on the security chief of eastern Afghanistan's Khost province, killing one person and injuring two others.

Sur Gul, the security chief, escaped unhurt. But the culprits, suspected to have been allies of the U.S. Special Forces in Khost, have taken refuge in their fortified airport compound, said Hazratuddin, intelligence chief of Khost.

"We have asked the Americans to hand them over but so far they haven't," he said in a telephone interview. The governor of Khost, Mohammed Ibrahim, also has demanded their arrest. According to Hazratuddin, the men opened fire on Gul because the security chief had tried to disarm them a day earlier in the market.

"The vehicle is completely destroyed. They fired many rounds into the truck. Two people are in very bad condition," said Hazratuddin. The man who died was Gul's driver and bodyguard.

A volatile city, bristling with men with guns, Khost has been carved up into areas of control by warlords of varying strength. The majority of the city is under the control of warlord Bacha Khan Zardran, but within Zardran's group there are rivalries.

Many of these rivals have been recruited by the U.S. Special Forces in their war on 'terrorism' in Afghanistan. The U.S. military provides them with training and 200 a month to each soldier, a princely sum in poor Afghanistan.

Hazratuddin said the gunmen who fired at Gul were loyal to Zardran's nephew, Sardar, whose men are among those being trained by the U.S. Special Forces

Gul also works with the U.S. Special Forces.

In an interview last week in Khost, Gul said "I am helping the U.S. Special Forces. They have given me the satellite phone and we are working together."

Gul was not available for comment following the shooting.

One U.S. soldier has been killed in Khost and at least three times the U.S. Special Forces have come under attack. In the most recent attack, less than two weeks ago assailants with rocket launchers, mortars and rifles fired at U.S. soldiers in the airport at Khost. One soldier was slightly injured.

Ordinary Afghans in Khost blame much of the fighting on the United States, saying their recruitment program is the cause. Rivals fight each other to win U.S. favor and the money that comes with helping the military.


NO TALIBAN NO LAW

The lawlessness in Khost, where sandbag bunkers have emerged on many street corners and on the rooftops of several buildings, has many residents longing for the return of the Taliban, when security was guaranteed.

Public and harsh punishments imposed by the Taliban brought security to much of the country they ruled.


A-10 WARTHOG WARPLANES INTO AFGHANISTAN

Meanwhile, the United States flew ground support A-10 Warthog warplanes into Afghanistan over the weekend in apparent preparation for further attacks on defiant Al- Qaeda and Taliban forces.

U.S. military spokesman Maj. Bryan Hilferty said Sunday fewer than 10 of the planes, nicknamed for their squat appearance, would operate out of Bagram, an air base just north of Kabul and the launching pad for ground and helicopter forces.

The Warthogs flew in before the arrival of 1,700 British commandos, who are due to be on the ground and operational by mid-April in the next phase of U.S.-led operations against Al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

"We can respond quicker if we are here and be where we need to be faster," said 74th Fighter Squadron officer Captain Jeff Baldwin. "It means a shorter time to get to the target."

The arrival of the planes coincided with uncertainty about the timing of the return, as a private citizen, of ex-King Mohammad Zahir Shah, who had been scheduled to arrive back in Kabul Monday after 30 years of exile in Rome.