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.
PRECISION STRIKES: The most significant reason to deploy HIMARS to outlying islands is to establish a ‘dead zone’ that the PLA would not dare enter, a source said A High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) would be deployed to Penghu County and Dongyin Island (東引) in Lienchiang County (Matsu) to force the Chinese military to retreat at least 100km from the coastline, a military source said yesterday. Taiwan has been procuring HIMARS and Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) from the US in batches. Once all batches have been delivered, Taiwan would possess 111 HIMARS units and 504 ATACMS, which have a range of 300km. Considering that “offense is the best defense,” the military plans to forward-deploy the systems to outlying islands such as Penghu and Dongyin so that
WHAT WAS ALL THAT FOR? Jaw Shaw-kong said that Cheng Li-wen had pushed for more drastic cuts and attacked him, just for the outcome to be nearly identical to his bill The legislature yesterday passed a supplementary budget bill to fund the purchase of separate packages of US military equipment, with the combined amount of spending capped at NT$780 billion (US$24.8 billion). The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their legislative majority to pass the bill, which runs until 2033 and has two main funding provisions. One was for NT$300 billion of arms sales already approved by the US for Taiwan on Dec. 17 last year, the other was for NT$480 billion for another arms package expected to be announced by Washington. The bill, which fell short of the NT$1.25
‘CLEAR MESSAGE’: The bill would set up an interagency ‘tiger team’ to review sanctions tools and other economic options to help deter any Chinese aggression toward Taiwan US Representative Young Kim has introduced a bill to deter Chinese aggression against Taiwan, calling for an interagency “tiger team” to preplan coordinated sanctions and economic measures in response to possible Chinese military or political action against Taiwan. “[Chinese President] Xi Jinping [習近平] has directed the People’s Liberation Army to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027. China has a plan. America should have one too,” Kim said in a news release on Thursday last week. She introduced the “Deter PRC [People’s Republic of China] aggression against Taiwan act” to “ensure the US has a coordinated sanctions strategy ready should
A former television news host and six military personnel — active and retired — have been indicted on espionage charges, Kaohsiung prosecutors said yesterday. Lin Chen-you (林宸佑), a former CTi News host and YouTuber, last year allegedly made videos at the direction of a Chinese agent criticizing the Democratic Progressive Party’s recall campaign, the Ciaotou District Prosecutors’ Office told a news conference in Kaohsiung. He allegedly received 4,325 tether coins for the videos from an unidentified person surnamed Huang (黃), believed to be an agent of a hostile foreign power, they said. Lin, also known as Ma Te (馬德), has a show named
RSS