Rebuilding Afghanistan: Karzai Assassination Attempt - Gulbuddin Hekmatyar Suspect

» Jen_ - Karzai Assassination Attempt - Gulbuddin Hekmatyar Suspect

....and looks like Gulbuddin Hekmatyar is the suspected culprit ...this from 9/5 MSNBC.com....

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Attacks spark chaos in Afghanistan

MSNBC STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS

KABUL, Afghanistan, Sept. 5 — In what appeared to be a day of coordinated attacks on Afghanistan’s fragile government, President Hamid Karzai survived an assassination attempt Thursday by an Afghan security guard. A car bomb that exploded in the heart of the Afghan capital reportedly killed at least 22 people and wounded dozens.

THE ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT on Karzai occurred when the guard fired at his car as it was leaving the governor’s mansion in Kandahar, witnesses said. Karzai was in the southern Afghan city attending the wedding celebration of his brother.

Karzai’s American bodyguards opened fire in response to the shooting, and three people were killed, including one who was wearing an Afghan military uniform.

The governor of Kandahar, Gul Agha Sherzai, was injured, but it was unclear if he was hit by gunfire from the assailant or by shots fired afterward.

“I was just outside the gate when I heard the gunshots,” said Sherzai’s security chief, Dur Mohammed. “The Americans opened fire on three people and they were killed.”

After the attack, Karzai returned to the governor’s guesthouse, where he is staying. “As he arrived here he assured people that he was fine,” said BBC reporter Lyse Doucet, who witnessed the attack.

Sherzai was being treated at the hospital at the U.S. air base in Kandahar, said Capt. Christa D’Andrea, a U.S. spokesman at Bagram air base, the U.S. military headquarters in Afghanistan.

U.S. Central Command also confirmed that a U.S. soldier providing security for Karzai was injured in the attack. The soldier received minor injuries and was in stable condition at a nearby military medical facility.

Earlier this year, Karzai replaced his Afghan guards with a U.S. special forces contingent after reports of an assassination plot planned by his own security detail.

Afghan Foreign Minister Abdullah said there was “no doubt” Karzai was the target of an assassination attempt.

The incident occurred shortly after the car bombing in the Afghan capital, Kabul, 300 miles to the northeast. Although it was not immediately clear whether the incidents were related, the violence came less than a week before the Sept. 11 anniversary, raising questions about whether Osama bin Laden’s terror network or a disaffected Afghan group was responsible.

The Kabul car bomb exploded at a market near the ministries of information and education. The death toll was uncertain because Afghans often pick up the bodies of their relatives and bury them immediately without reporting the deaths. But a U.N. security official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said 22 people had been killed.

Afghan state television said 26 were killed.

It was the most serious in a string of bombings that Afghan officials say are aimed at destabilizing the country’s fragile government.

Emergency vehicles and armored personnel carriers from the international peacekeeping force rushed to the scene in the crowded market area.

Witnesses said a smaller explosion had drawn crowds to the area when the car bomb — apparently in a taxi — exploded in front of a building containing shops selling televisions and satellite dishes — all forbidden during hard-line Taliban rule. The second floor of the building housed a small hotel.

Police sealed off the area, but emergency vehicles could be seen rushing injured to hospitals. Some dazed victims were led away, their clothing ripped and covered in blood.

Five or six vehicles were destroyed, windows shattered and doors of shops ripped off their hinges.

WARLORD SUSPECTED IN BLAST

“We can’t say exactly who was behind it, but we know the last bombs were al-Qaida and (former Prime Minister) Gulbuddin (Hekmatyar),” said police spokesman Dul Aqa.

Hekmatyar issued a call for jihad, or holy war, this week to drive U.S. and foreign troops, including international peacekeepers, from Afghanistan.

The blast occurred in one of the most congested areas of the city on a day when many residents do their shopping before Friday prayers. One shopper, Haji Abdul Aroof, said he saw four bodies lying in the street.

“We came to see what was happening when the second bomb went off,” he said. “There was a powerful explosion and we all ran.”

HOSPITALS BURDENED

Thirty-four people were taken to Jamhuriat Hospital, which lacked facilities to handle broken bones and other serious injuries. They were transferred to the Italian Emergency Hospital and the Wazir Akbar Khan Hospital, doctors said.

At the Italian hospital, staff posted lists with the names of 42 wounded. Staff members said about 65 people had been taken to the hospital, but some of the most seriously wounded could not be identified.

Crowds of worried family and friends were pushing and shoving to get a look at the list.

Several main roads in the city were blocked and additional police and soldiers, armed with rocket launchers and automatic weapons, took positions at strategic points in the capital.

The blast was the most serious in a string of bombings that have occurred in the Afghan capital since Aug. 15 when a small blast shattered windows at the Ministry of Telecommunications.

Previous bombings had been small, causing few casualties and relatively little damage.

HEKMATYAR HISTORY

Hekmatyar was a key anti-communist rebel ally of the United States during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Heavily backed by Pakistan, Hekmatyar was considered one of the strongest of the anti-communist commanders during the 1980s war.

He was named the prime minister in the first Islamic transitional government that followed the end of communist rule in Afghanistan in 1992. But instead he engaged in a bitter feud with his arch rival, Ahmed Shah Massood, killed last Sept. 9 by suicide bombers.

From 1992 to 1996 Massood and Hekmatyar and their respective allies engaged in brutal fighting that killed 50,000 people in the capital, most of them civilians.

Hekmatyar and Massood finally made peace in the summer of 1996 but by September the Taliban had taken control. Hekmatyar fled to Iran rather than take refuge in the Panjshir Valley with Massood and the northern alliance.

Since the collapse of the Taliban, Hekmatyar has been expelled from Iran. His whereabouts are not known, but he is believed to be in eastern Afghanistan. Just a couple of days ago he sent an audiocassette with a warning to the U.S. special forces and to the international peacekeepers in Kabul. He urged the faithful to wage a holy war against them and warned them to leave the country. This was his second warning.

NBC’s Tom Aspell and Babak Behnam in Kabul, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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Some previous posts here on Gulbuddin Hekmatyar...

2/27/02 - Steven: rogue Gulbuddin Hekmatyar disappears in Iran

2/28/02 - Betty: Warlord Gulbuddin Hekmaytar

4/4/02 - Betty: Hundreds arrested in Afghanistan

5/9/02 - Steven: Hekmatyar survives CIA missile near Kabul, Mon., Day 212

.....Jen

-- posted by Jen_