KARZAI TESTS HIS MUSCLE BY FIRING 15 PROVINCIAL OFFICIALS

KABUL, Afghanistan - In a tentative yet risky attempt to exert his
authority beyond Kabul, President Hamid Karzai summarily fired more than 15
top provincial officials today, accusing them of abuse of authority,
corruption and in some cases narcotics trafficking.

The firings are the first large shake-up in the 10 months Mr. Karzai has
been in office. If the officials stepped down as ordered, more dismissals
would be likely, his spokesman signaled today. But if the orders were
flouted, Mr. Karzai would come off as a feeble ruler whose writ ends a few
miles from his 19th-century presidential palace.

"There will be a little trouble, of course," Fazel Akbar, a spokesman for
the president, said today while predicting that Mr. Karzai would prevail.
"Both the nation and the people are behind these decisions. This is the
strength of the situation."

Mr. Karzai's calls for a law-abiding, multiethnic government appear to
enjoy wide popular support across Afghanistan, but he has no national army
to enforce his orders. Early opposition in Washington stymied his repeated
requests that an international peacekeeping force be expanded beyond Kabul.

Militia leaders still rule large swaths of the country as their personal
fiefs, using customs duties, local taxes and in some cases opium
trafficking to raise their own armies. Aid groups have complained that the
sway of those leaders has been bolstered by a Pentagon policy of hiring
warlord's soldiers to aid American forces in the hunt for the remnants of
Al Qaeda and the Taliban.

The dismissals appeared to be a first step to undermine the warlords'
power. One official dismissed was the intelligence chief of Abdul Rashid
Dostum, a powerful warlord in northern Afghanistan accused of killing
hundreds of Taliban prisoners by suffocating them in shipping containers.

Mr. Karzai also dismissed the powerful intelligence chief in the southern
city of Kandahar and disbanded three provincial military units around the
country.

The president moved against officials in the city of Jalalabad in eastern
Afghanistan, which has re-emerged as a center of the opium trade since the
fall of the Taliban. He fired Jalalabad's mayor and the directors of its
customs, public works and agriculture departments.

"All these people who were fired, the reason is corruption and not obeying
the laws," said Mr. Akbar, the president's spokesman. "Also some of them
are caught in drugs trafficking."

Over the last few weeks, Mr. Karzai has adopted an increasingly aggressive
stance as clashes between rival commanders in the north and west have
flared. American officials have backed his moves.

Last week, the United States announced that it was suspending aid projects
in northern Afghanistan because of repeated clashes between the forces of
two rival commanders, Mr. Dostum and Atta Muhammad. American military
officials also announced that they would no longer turn over captured
weapons to local militia leaders. Weapons will now only be turned over to a
new national army the United States is helping to train. But in a sign of
Mr. Karzai's problems, that army is expected to take more than five years
to form.

The dismissals were approved on Saturday night at an emergency meeting of
Mr. Karzai's cabinet, which includes members of various ethnic groups. Mr.
Karzai, a member of the country's largest ethnic group, the Pashtuns, has
tried to ease simmering ethnic divisions after a decade of civil conflict
following the 1989 Soviet withdrawal.

The was no immediate response from the fired officials tonight. An
assistant to Kamaluddin Gulalai, the head of intelligence in Kandahar, said
in a telephone interview that Mr. Gulalai had not been informed of his
dismissal.

The three provincial military units Mr. Karzai dissolved were formed to
oppose the Soviet occupation in the 1980's. He also eliminated several
regional security zones established by local commanders.

Mr. Akbar said the firings today were based on the findings of five
delegations that Mr. Karzai sent across the country to investigate the
performance of public officials.

The commissions praised some officials, Mr. Akbar added. The promotions of
a half-dozen senior officials were also announced today.

Mr. Akbar said the government would use various methods to encourage
officials to step down, but hinted that force, if necessary, could be used.
Mr. Karzai has repeatedly said his goal was to curb the culture of violence
that flourished through 23 years of conflict, but his patience appears to
have run out.

"We will try by political means, by jirga means or by conversation and
negotiation to convince these people to accept these decisions," Mr. Akbar
said. "But if they will not accept it, of course we should find some other
ways."