Gunmen opened fire yesterday on an observation post manned by members of the international security force in a third day of violence that heightened fears about security in the Afghan capital.
It was the first time the peacekeepers, who now number about 4,500 troops, have come under fire since they deployed in Kabul the day before the new government took power Dec. 22.
The soldiers returned fire, and a dead person was later found near the scene, said British Colonel Richard Barrons, the peacekeepers' chief of staff. He did not report any injuries to the six British paratroopers manning the post.
The shooting followed two days of violence that cast doubt on the interim administration's ability to keep order in post-Taliban Afghanistan. On Thursday, a Cabinet minister was slain at Kabul airport under violent and mysterious circumstances. On Friday, 50 Afghans and five peacekeepers were injured -- none seriously -- in a violent melee at what was billed as goodwill soccer match.
Earlier yesterday, mourners fingering prayer beads and murmuring Koranic verses gathered to pay tribute to Abdul Rahman, the slain minister of aviation and tourism. Witnesses and initial official accounts said he was killed by a mob of would-be pilgrims furious over delayed flights to Saudi Arabia, but Afghanistan's interim leader, Hamid Karzai, blamed high-ranking officials in his own government.
Three arrests have been made, and three officials are being sought, perhaps having slipped away on planeloads of pilgrims, authorities said. Saudi Arabia promised to arrest them if they are found.
At the central Kabul mosque where Rahman's body was brought before burial, a sea of mourners -- clad in camouflage fatigues or wrapped in blankets and flowing tunics, heads covered in rough wool caps, turbans or military caps -- raised their upturned hands together in prayer.
Karzai's information minister named five alleged conspirators including officials in the intelligence service, justice ministry and defense ministry. Government-run Kabul TV said six men altogether were accused of playing some role in the "assassination."
"We will try them. We will put them behind bars," Karzai said Friday.
Karzai suggested the killing was linked to a feud dating to the struggle against the Taliban militia. Suspects named by the government were senior leaders of the dominant faction of the northern alliance, with which Rahman had broken.
"All this ... goes back to the days of the resistance," Karzai said.
Rahman had been a senior member of the Jamiat e-Islami party, led by ex-president Burhanuddin Rabbani. But during the Taliban years, he switched his alliance to a group loyal to exiled King Mohammad Zaher Shah after a bitter falling-out with his former faction.
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