Warning behind killing of journalists

The murder of four journalists on the road to Kabul is a bloody message sent to the Northern Alliance. Hours after their bodies were dumped, the Taliban sent another signal that they were far from finished, and cut electrical power to the Afghan capital.

Just as the lights went out, the Foreign Office's new Man in Kabul, Stephen Evans, landed with his burly bodyguards at Bagram airport, which is jointly controlled by 100 men from 40 Royal Marine Commando and trigger-happy militiamen.

Afghanistan is a dangerous place for anyone, perilous for foreigners, and potentially disastrous for well-meaning diplomats hoping to knit the country's warring tribes into anything approaching a nation state.

Since the Northern Alliance took Kabul, its interests no longer lie with hunting Osama bin Laden, who has gone to ground among the Pashtun tribesmen of the south. In trying to hold Kabul and make peace with the Pashtun, Western forces will struggle to find reliable allies on the ground.

A Ministry of Defence spokesman with Mr Evans explained that the 100 Marines were in the country "to make an assessment on what, if anything, the 6,000 British troops on 48 hours' notice to deploy in Afghanistan can contribute". He added: "That includes assessing whether they can help with humanitarian operations."

Other British military officials have advised their political masters that grand schemes to send foreign troops to keep the peace in Afghanistan, or prevent the capital from falling entirely under the control of the Tajik elements of the Northern Alliance, are deeply risky.

The Tajiks are already in control of the capital and do not want British forces in their way. The Hazaras, technically part of the Alliance, have been blocked in their advance 30 miles west. The south and east, including the hydro-electric power station at Sorowbi close to where the journalists were killed, is under the control of Pashtun men who last week were Taliban and have now "turned their turbans around".

Journalists Maria Grazia Cutuli, 39, an Italian, Australian Harry Burton, 33, Spaniard Julio Fuentes, 43, and Aziz Haidari, 33, an Afghan working for the Reuters news agency, were dragged from their car and killed yesterday on the only road linking Kabul with Pakistan.

By Afghan standards, its was considered a safe route. Haji Abdul Qadeer, a Pashtun member of the Northern Alliance, had been installed as governor in Jalalabad. "When my territory ends, the Northern Alliance begins. You'll have no problems on that road," he told me as I left on Sunday.

Setting out at Torkham, the border crossing, we watched nervously as three Japanese journalists kidnapped by unknown bandits or Taliban were handed over to their ambassador.

The Sorowbi power station lights lit a river gorge which could have been purposebuilt for ambush. Gunmen flitted among rocks. A French TV crew which followed us was robbed at gunpoint and a Greek journalist travelling the road was robbed twice.

Then the four journalists in a car at the front of a later convoy were dragged from their vehicle and led out of sight. Cars behind turned tail, coming under fire.

Other media were attacked in Sorowbi. Men and boys pounded on their car windows chanting "Death to America" and "Death to Britain".

For the Northern Alliance to make war on the Pashtun, it would risk losing the crown of Kabul. "We have no direct control south of the capital, and we're trying to negotiate with the former Taliban leaders. But it's difficult, very, very difficult and we don't want to fight them," Haji Almos Khan, the Alliance's southern front commander said.

In the meantime the Pashtun and Taliban message is clear: "Share power, or lose it".