Interim Afghan leader Mr Hamid Karzai was back home today after trips to Washington and London to face an increasingly perilous security situation which has seen simmering tribal rivalry explode in bloodshed.
While US forces have all but destroyed Afghan operations of the al Qaeda network of Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden, the country's propensity for factional fighting was again in evidence.
In the east, forces led by a government-appointed provincial chief vowed to counterattack the town of Gardez, from which they were driven yesterday after two days of battles with rival Pashtun tribal troops.
In the north, forces of ethnic Uzbek warlord Abdul Rahid Dostum clashed with ethnic Tajiks and some 40 fighters were killed, an official from another faction in the area said.
Returning from his first visits to the United States and Britain, where he pleaded for a bigger international security force, Mr Karzai was expected to travel soon to Herat, in the west, where the forces of rival ethnic groups have been rattling sabres in recent weeks.
Mr Karzai took office as head of the six-month, UN-backed administration on December 22 following the defeat of the former ruling Taliban by US bombers and Afghan opposition fighters.