21.   Since the fall of the Taliban, parts of Afghanistan have been plagued by firefights between rival warlords as well as looting and other criminal activity.

22.   Some officials had speculated that the United States might have been tricked into mounting the attacks by false information from rival warlords.

23.   Some officials had speculated openly that the United States may have been duped into mounting the attacks by false tips from rival warlords.

24.   Support for the Taliban runs high in the Khost region, which has also been the site of intense fighting between rival warlords seeking control of the provincial government.

25.   The assault, however, was not supported by the Chechen government of President Aslan Maskhadov, which has been unable to exert its will over rival warlords.

26.   The Khost region is one of many in the country that rival warlords have divided into armed fiefs.

27.   The trouble was not on the scale of that which ravaged China under its rival warlords at about the same time.

28.   The weekend attacks were not intended to help a Karzai-appointed commander suppress resistance from a rival warlord or other non-Taliban group, U.S. officials said.

29.   There is infighting among rival warlords in the countrysides.

30.   U.S. forces are not involved in responding to fighting between rival warlords, said Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Dave Lapan.