In the Palace of Enlightenment, a Dark Hour for Kabul : Chaos: Against an ornate backdrop, moderates seize the Afghan capital’s seat of power from hard-liners.

It was just after a quiet sunrise Sunday in a valley awash with spring that the first rockets ripped through the Mogul palaces of Afghanistan’s ancient kings. Then came the staccato cracks of a dozen assault rifles. The earth trembled when a tank opened fire.

Commander Ghulam Jan and his 30 Jamaat-i-Islami guerrilla fighters had launched their assault, a critical mission to drive out a platoon of rival Hezb-i-Islami rebels from the presidential compound that is Afghanistan’s traditional source of power and to secure it for moderate moujahedeen leader Ahmed Shah Masoud.

So began the battle for the Palace of Enlightenment--and, perhaps, Kabul’s darkest hour.

In the day and night that followed Commander Jan’s attack, the city that could not be conquered through centuries of invasion and revolution quickly began destroying itself from within.

Screaming SU-22 fighter jets that provide the distinct edge for Masoud’s coalition of Islamic moderates pounded anti-aircraft positions occupied the previous day by rebels loyal to extremist leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.

Fire engines and ambulances careened wildly through downtown streets with armed Masoud escorts. Most shops were shuttered and barred. Few civilians ventured into the streets. Hospitals filled with wounded men, women and children caught in the cross-fire--more than 50 at the Red Cross alone.

And, by the hour, Kabul looked more and more like Beirut.

As he surveyed the chaos from a hilltop high above, one Jamaat-i-Islami guerrilla commander, who had fought for seven years against Kabul’s fallen regime and spent three years more in prison for the cause of Islamic holy war, simply shook his head.

“I have retired today,” said Zabiullah. “I was fighting for Islam. But this?

“These people are just fighting for power. I don’t want power. I only wanted to be free.”

But other Jamaat-i-Islami commanders were clearly more motivated--commanders like Ghulam Jan.

It was, after all, his battle for the Palace of Enlightenment, a Mogul-era architectural gem in the heart of Kabul’s presidential palace, that signaled the opening salvo in a war for control of the capital.

The factions fought for nearly four hours, shattering a few windows, burning guardhouses and pine trees and littering the grounds with spent shell casings.

When it was over, the commander and his 30 guerrilla fighters had won the battle, securing the seat of power for Masoud and his coalition.

As Jan led a handful of journalists through the smoldering ancient compound that his men had just overtaken, he explained against a terrifying soundtrack of machine-gun bursts and artillery fire just why he and the thousands of other guerrilla fighters were forced into a whole new era of war just moments after their apparent victory.

It was more than just a turf war, the 24-year-old guerrilla veteran announced as he led the visitors past delicate, hand-painted pillars, elegant crystal chandeliers and the other riches that abound in the Palace of Enlightenment.

“We wanted this place to belong to us, to all the people of Afghanistan,” he said. “They think the whole country belongs to them. They want all the power just for themselves.”

“They” are the followers of Hekmatyar, a religious fundamentalist and an ethnic Pushtun nationalist. The leader of the Hezb-i-Islami, or Party of Islam, was, in fact, the only one of the seven major rebel factions based in Pakistan who had rejected a compromise coalition government that might have prevented Sunday’s outbreak of urban warfare.

It was a point that Jan stressed as he walked by one of his men holding a holy Koran in one hand and a rocket launcher in the other.

“This man Hekmatyar didn’t want to talk and join with Ahmed Shah Masoud and the other commanders and leaders of our moujahedeen in Peshawar,” he said, referring to the Pakistani rebel staging ground where Hekmatyar amassed his vast stockpile of weaponry during the years the United States helped finance the successful moujahedeen holy war against as many as 115,000 Soviet invaders.

“He wants to fight us. So we must fight him. He wants this grand palace as his base, so we must first fight him.”

Other turf battles left dozens dead and wounded throughout the day Sunday. However, Jan said his side suffered no casualties in the firefight for the Palace of Enlightenment. In fact, his victory included not just the many symbolic palaces in the compound but also three Hezb-i-Islami prisoners and 500 AK-47 assault rifles, which, in a grim omen for Kabul’s future, Jan’s men handed out almost indiscriminately to anyone who asked.

“I am with neither party,” said one man who helped himself to a rifle. “This is for my own personal security.”

The distribution, after all, was in keeping with what Jan said was his most important message.

“This belongs to all the people of Afghanistan now,” he said later as he led his visitors to the private residence of fallen dictator Najibullah and the authoritarian rulers who came before him.

On the front door, there was a flimsy padlock with a taped note written in Persian.

“There is gold in there,” Jan explained. “The lock is there so it will not be stolen. There were many valuable things--jewels, chalices, gems and riches that now belong to the Afghan people. Not to just one man or one party, but the whole of the nation.

“We have come here just to guard this justice. The other party has come to take everything for itself. But, God willing, everything will be all right now. This palace belongs to the people now. And now, we will give up our lives before we give up this place.”

And it was clear as Jan led his visitors back through the centuries-old fort wall that had kept out so many foreign invaders and, in recent years, an entire nation that suffered for its leaders, that such a vow would not be an empty one.

Suddenly, sporadic machine-gun fire started up again within the compound just behind him. Casually and without expression on his battle-lined face, Jan stopped, turned around and answered it with a single, blind rifle shot.