Kabul, Afghanistan — The United States raised the specter of renewed foreign meddling in Afghanistan on Friday and said Iran may be sending pro-Iranian Afghan fighters to destabilize the newly installed U.S.-backed government.
U.S. special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad stopped short of directly accusing Iran of interference but cited unspecified reports that Afghan fighters and money were being sent from Iran into the extremely volatile country to build opposition to Prime Minister Hamid Karzai.
Navy Lt. Matt Kaslic celebrates at Whidbey Island Naval Air Station, Wash., after returning Friday from six months aboard the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson. Kaslic and other members of VAQ-135 flew EA-6B radar and communications jamming missions inside Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.
"All of those things would be regarded as interference," Khalilzad said.
Earlier this month, President Bush warned Iran against harboring al-Qaida fighters and trying to destabilize Afghanistan's new government.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman rejected Bush's remarks as "baseless."
Army Gen. Tommy Franks, commander of the U.S. war effort in Afghanistan, echoed Khalilzad's comments during a briefing at U.S. Central Command headquarters in Tampa, Fla.
"There has been a perception among several of the leaders inside Afghanistan that Iran has in some cases not been terribly helpful," Franks told reporters.
Franks said U.S. forces continued working against pockets of Taliban and al-Qaida resistance, about 10 of them at any given time.
"We have found tanks, we have found armored personnel carriers. We have found thousands and thousands of rounds of ammunition.
Despite their common Islamic faith, Iran fiercely opposed the former Taliban leadership. Since the Taliban collapsed last month, Iran, Pakistan, India and other countries in the region have been competing for influence among the various Afghan factions.
Tribal rivalries, with some factions backed by Iran, tore the country apart after the Soviet Union ended its occupation in 1989. The civil war opened the way for the Taliban to take control of the fractured country in 1996.
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