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| Afghanistan |
| Taliban claims assassination of senior policewoman |
| 2008-09-29 |
| Taliban gunmen shot dead the most high-profile female police officer in Afghanistan as she left her home to go to work on Sunday, officials and the militia said. The attackers were waiting outside the home of Malalai Kakar, head of the city of Kandahar's Department of Crimes Against Women, and opened fire on her car, Kandahar government spokesman Zalmay Ayoobi told AFP. "Malalai Kakar died in front of her house," he said. "Her son was wounded." A doctor at the city's main hospital said Kakar, in her late 30s, had been shot in the head. "She died on the spot and her son was badly injured and is in a coma," said the doctor, who refused to let his name be used. A spokesman for the Taliban, which targets government officials as part of an growing insurgency, said the assassins were from his group. "We killed Malalai Kakar," spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi told AFP. "She was our target, and we successfully eliminated our target." Kakar, a mother of six, was regularly profiled in international media and was known for her courage in one of Afghanistan's most conservative provinces. A captain in the police force and the most senior policewoman in Kandahar, she headed a team of about 10 women police officers and had reportedly received numerous death threats. Kandahar is the birthplace of the Taliban, which is mounting a growing insurgency that targets officials working with the government. During their 1996-2001 hold on power, the Taliban stopped women from working outside the home and stopped them from leaving home without a male relative and an all-covering burqa. Kakar was the first woman to join the Kandahar police force after the US-led 2001 ouster of the Taliban and had been involved in investigating crimes against women and children, and conducting house searches. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #3 The "Lions of Islam" are at it again. |
| Posted by: Steven 2008-09-29 23:10 |
| #2 I've had an odd thought, go through the Mideast and kill all the men with beards, should eliminate Islam totally. Don't miss any Mosque, however small, or any madrases, either. |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2008-09-29 16:42 |
| #1 The Taliban is a crime against women. |
| Posted by: treo 2008-09-29 10:19 |