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| Afghanistan |
| 17 Dead, Injured in Attack on Western Afghan Market |
| 2002-11-02 |
| At least 17 people were killed or injured in an attack on a bustling marketplace in western Afghanistan by supporters of a powerful warlord, a local commander said Saturday, November 2. Forces loyal to Herat provincial governor Ismail Khan bombarded a packed bazaar in the Zirkoh valley near the southern Herat city of Shindad, killing two and wounding 15, a spokesman for rival commander Amanullah Khan said. Abdul Karim Afghan said fighting between the two Khans erupted as a delegation representing Amanullah paid a second visit to Kabul, to persuade Afghan President Hamid Karzai to replace Ismail Khan as governor. How convenient it should happen precisely at that moment... Afghan said the attack was an attempt by Ismail Khan, an ethnic Tajik, to harass one of Afghanistan's largest Pashtun communities. "The forces of commander Ismail Khan made a rocket attack on innocent civilians on Friday (November 1). It was very crowded in the bazaar and the forces of Ismail Khan attacked it using tank rockets," he said. "A rocket also hit a house and killed two innocents. They were in their house. They were not military people." It's the "poor, put-upon Pashtuns" ploy again... He said Ismail Khan's troops then turned their artillery on Amanullah's forces before retreating from their forward positions. If they'd just beaten them up, why retreat? Doesn't sound like Ismail... No one from the governor's office was immediately available to confirm the attacks. Guess they retreated, too... Afghan said a delegation representing Herat's 50,000-strong Pashtun community had been recalled to the Afghan capital after an earlier meeting, in which they were promised a comprehensive disarmament program for the area. "Attacks like this on innocent people are against humanity in Islam. We can no longer tolerate Ismail Khan in charge of Herat and we have asked for a new governor," he said. My guess is that all this can be traced back to Gul Agha Shirzai, in Kandahar. He's been casting covetous eyes upon Herat since before the last Talibs were out the door in his own backyard. Herat's a prosperous town, for Afghanistan, and it would make a rich prize for a greedy and ambitious second-level warlord... |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |