North Afghan face-off threatens fragile peace

ISLAMABAD: Northern Afghanistan, once the bastion of a single warlord, is now the stage for an increasingly violent struggle as the same rivals that helped reduce the country to rubble race against time to expand their power base.
Headstrong warlords and trigger-happy gunmen are a menace throughout Afghanistan as the cash-strapped interim government struggles against the odds to get a grip on the country.
But the north is witness to a particularly bitter stand-off between two military heavyweights with a barely concealed dislike for each other and a history of resolving problems through war.