dispute erupted after his forces tried to disarm soldiers from a rival military unit. When those troops resisted, a firefight broke out, killing three soldiers. On 29 December, Fahim urged the Americans to stop their bombing campaign on Afghanistan, because bin Laden had probably fled Afghanistan and moved to Peshawar in Pakistan. "Osama is out of our control," Fahim said. A day later, however, foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah stated that they did not know where bin Laden was and that air raids will continue "for as long as it takes to finish off the terrorists." Relations with other states As Minister of Defence in his first months, Fahim traveled extensively to neighbouring countries to build relations between the new government and Afghanistan's most influential neighbours. When US-envoy to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad said in January 2002 that Iran might be backing Afghan fighters in an attempt to unsettle the Karzai-government, Fahim, who visited the Iranian minister of Defense half January, stated that there was no sign of Iran "creating insecurity". At the end of January 2002, Fahim set in on a meeting of Karzai met with United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan and spoke with the two of them about security issues. First term as Vice President During the 2002 loya jirga, where a new transitional government was formed, Fahim supported the candidacy for president of Karzai. In turn he retained as vice-president and defense minister. In the summer of 2002, American officials are said to have picked up intelligence that Fahim was considering an attempt to assassinate Karzai, as a result of which, in July 2002, US Special Forces wrested presidential bodyguard duties away from soldiers loyal to Fahim. The move followed the assassination earlier in the month of one of Karzai's vice presidents, Abdul Qadir, a powerful Pashtun warlord and Karzai ally. As Defense Minister, he toured army bases in the United Kingdom, negotiated security issues with US General Tommy Franks and Canadian Defense Minister John McCallum, NATO Secretary General George Robertson, visited Moscow and Washington, DC. He also replaced 15 ethnic Tajik generals with officers from the Pashtun, Uzbek and Hazara ethnic groups, although he was accused of delaying reforms that would have required him to replace his Tajik generals with a more ethnically balanced officer corps. The reform was a precondition for carrying out a $200 million UN-sponsored plan to pay off and disarm 100,000 militiamen loyal