Afghan interim leader Mr Hamid Karzai said last night he would do everything necessary to ensure security after the death of his tourism and civil aviation minister and an attack on British soldiers.
But as Mr Karzai pledged security, reports came in of factional clashes in north and east Afghanistan, highlighting problems his interim government faces.
Mr Karzai told a news conference there would be stern punishment for the killers of the minister, Abdul Rahman, at Kabul airport on Thursday night, and said he would seek more help from the international community if security deteriorated.
He dismissed fears the murder, allegedly by members of a powerful faction in the Northern Alliance, which makes up the core of the interim administration, could split his government.
"The people that committed the crime will be dealt with very, very sternly," Mr Karzai told a news conference. "There will not be any lenient hand . . . they have committed a murder, let the courts decide on that," he said.
Mr Karzai said five people were being held in Kabul in connection with Mr Rahman's killing, which was initially blamed on Muslim haj pilgrims enraged by delays in flights to Saudi Arabia.
Two other suspects were being hunted in Afghanistan and three had fled to Saudi Arabia on a pilgrim flight. Mr Karzai said Saudi Arabia had detained two of those three.
He did not mention what had happened to the third suspect in Saudi Arabia, nor did he say if, or when, Saudi Arabia would send back the two men they held.