KARZAI ESCAPED ASSASSINATION AS EXPLOSION KILLED 36 IN KABOL
KABOL 5 Sept. (IPS) Afghan Prime Minister Hamed Karzai escaped Thursday an assassination attempt in Qandahar at almost the same time that a big explosion in Kabol killed at least 30 people.
The assassination attempt at Mr. Karzai and the huge explosion in the Capital took place one day after Golbodin Hekmatyar, a renegade Afghan warlord backed by the Islamic Republic, had called on "Muslim Afghan people" to launch a holly war against both the American forces in Afghanistan and the American-installed Prime Minister.
Witnesses reported that the exchange of fire between the attackers and Mr. Karzai’s Aamerican bodyguards left one gunman and one of the president's bodyguards dead and Mr. Gol Agha Sherzai, the Governor of Qandahar and a U.S. special operations serviceman wounded.
Speaking to reporters about the failed assassination attempt, Afghan Foreign Affairs Minister Dr. Abdollah Abdollah said that Karzai was leaving the governor's house when a uniformed, armed person appeared in front of their car and opened fire.
No group had claimed either of incidents, but sources speculated the assassination attempt, but sources speculated that might be the work of "al-Qa’eda" organization heralding new operations for the first anniversary of 11 September 2001 attacks on New York and Washington.
A bodyguard fired back at the shooter and both were killed immediately, Abdollah said. He also confirmed that the Governor had been slightly wounded in the neck. The Pentagon said initial reports indicate the gunman was killed by U.S. troops.
The wife of one of Karzai's brothers told CNN the president and the governor had gotten into their car when the gunman fired five shots into the vehicle. But another witness said that Sherzai and Karzai were not yet in the car when the shooting took place.
U.S. Central Command said a U.S. soldier providing security for Karzai was injured as a result of what it called "an apparent attack on a motorcade" transporting the officials. The soldier received minor injuries and is in stable condition. The soldier was taken to a nearby military medical facility for treatment, Central Command said.
Karzai, who was in town to attend the wedding of his younger brother, was whisked to safety after the shooting. He was to be airlifted out of Qandahar, the siege of Mollah Mohammad Omar, the Emir of the ruthless Islamic regime of the Taleban who were defeated after the American military intervention in the war-shattered nation.
Both Sherzai and Karzai belong to the ethnic Pashtoon tribe, the largest ethnic in Afghanistan.
"It depends who is behind the shooting at Karzai. If it is al-Qa’eda, it might signal a rehearsal of what the organization might be preparing for 11 September. But if it is done by opponents of the Prime Minister, it means that, more or less, he had been successful in checking them and they want to eliminate physically", commented Mr. Baqer Mo’in, the Head of BBC’s Persian and Pashtoon services.
The shooting in Kandahar happened hours after two explosions rocked the center of Kabol, killing at least 36 people and injuring 150 others.
At the end of July, officials said they thwarted an assassination attempt against Karzai. They said they found a car filled with explosives.
"Every one knows that the American are responsible for insecurity and chaos in Afghanistan", Hekmatyar said in a statement distributed late Tuesday night to news agencies in Peshawar.
Hekmatyar, who was living in exile in neighbouring Iran after the Taleban took over Kabol in 1996, was asked to leave Tehran after he made similar provocative statements against the Americans in Afghanistan.
But Iranian and Afghan sources said he is being backed by the Iranian ruling radical ayatollahs, led by the leader of the regime, Ayatollah Ali Khameneh’i.
"No matter who is behind the two dramatic incidents, but it is a set back for both the government of Mr. Karzai and the international community, that failed to stand to its reconstruction promises", Mr. Mo’in said, reminding that most of the donor nations had failed to honour their pledges for the reconstruction of the war-ruined nation. ENDS KARZAI ESCAPES ASSASSINATION 5902