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Assassins slay top Afghan official
©Associated Press KABUL, Afghanistan -- Gunmen firing assault rifles Saturday assassinated Afghan Vice President Abdul Qadir a veteran Pashtun warlord and key figure in U.S.-backed efforts to bring stability to the nation. President Hamid Karzai summoned his Cabinet to an emergency session, and police set up roadblocks throughout the city as the gunmen escaped. Uniformed troops armed with Kalashnikov rifles and rocket-propelled grenade launchers took up positions in front of government ministries. A government statement issued after the meeting blamed the assassination on terrorists. Karzai appointed a commission headed by Interior Minister Taj Mohammad Wardak and another vice president, Karim Khalili, to investigate the assassination. Karzai will send a senior government delegation to the funeral in Jalalabad today, the statement said. The government declared Tuesday a national day of mourning. The attack occurred about 12:40 p.m. (4:10 a.m. Saturday EDT) as Qadir, 48, one of three vice presidents, was leaving in his four-wheel-drive Toyota Land Cruiser from the heavily guarded Ministry of Public Works, which he also headed. The two gunmen fired nearly 40 rounds into his vehicle, killing Qadir and his driver. The gunmen, dressed in traditional shawal khameez garments and wearing white skull caps, then jumped into a white car and escaped, police official Abdul Raouf Dad said. All 10 uniformed security guards on duty at the ministry were arrested because they failed to react properly, Kabul police chief Din Mohammed Jurat said. A police investigator, who gave his name as Dr. Zia, said: "When I asked, "Where were you when this happened?' they laughed. They said, "We were at lunch.' " Karzai rushed to the 400-bed military hospital where Qadir's body was taken and afterward summoned his Cabinet into emergency session. Agriculture Minister Syed Hussain Anwari told the Associated Press that, during the Cabinet meeting, Karzai "expressed his great sadness for the loss of a great patriot and the hero of the nation." No group claimed responsibility. Foreign Ministry spokesman Omar Samad called the killing a terrorist action carried out by "enemies of the state who are against peace in the country." President Bush said his administration stands ready to assist in the Afghan investigation if Karzai asks for help. "Right now, the Afghan government believes they can handle the investigation," Bush said in Kennebunkport, Maine. "There's all kinds of scenarios as to ... who killed him. But we'll work closely with the government if they want us to. "We are more resolved than ever to bring stability to the country so that the Afghan people can have peace and hope," Bush said. He said Qadir "desired freedom and stability for the country he loved" and that a national security official had expressed condolences to Karzai and the government and people of Afghanistan, "who lost a good and valued friend." Apart from Karzai himself, Qadir was the most prominent ethnic Pashtun in the government. He was appointed vice president during last month's Afghan grand council, or loya jirga, to bring ethnic balance to a government dominated by ethnic Tajiks. Qadir also served as governor of Nangarhar province, one of the richest areas of the country because of its extensive opium poppy fields and proximity to Pakistan. Residents of Nangarhar's capital, Jalalabad, suggested the killing could have stemmed from personal, political and economic rivalries in the province. Qadir was a leading rebel commander during the war against the Soviets in the 1980s. Later, he became one of the few prominent Pashtuns to join the Tajik- and Uzbek-dominated Northern Alliance, which allied with the United States during last year's war against the Taliban. His brother, Abdul Haq, was a legendary anti-Soviet commander hanged by the Taliban in October. The slaying of such a prominent and powerful figure threatened to stir unrest in the strategic eastern area as the Karzai government struggles to extend its authority beyond the capital. Mindful of that possibility, a member of the U.S. National Security Council staff was in touch with Karzai immediately after the killing, U.S. officials said. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher condemned the assassination of "an Afghan patriot." Boucher's statement said the killing "should not be allowed to divert the government and people of Afghanistan from the path of reconstruction." In London, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said the "whole of the international community will stand alongside the Afghan people in their determination to rebuild their country, and not to have their efforts sabotaged by terrorism." In Berlin, the president of the German parliament, Wolfgang Thierse, said the assassination was "an assault on the nascent process of peace and democratization in Afghanistan." French Foreign Ministry spokesman Bernard Valero condemned the assassination and said France "is determined more than ever to play our part in mobilizing the international community to promote Afghanistan's development and stability." Qadir was the second Cabinet minister assassinated since the Taliban collapsed last year. On Feb. 14, Civil Aviation and Tourism Minister Abdul Rahman was killed at Kabul airport under mysterious circumstances. -- Information from the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and the Boston Globe was used in this report.
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