Afghan President Hamid Karzai narrowly escaped an assassination
attempt in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar Thursday evening,
just three hours after a powerful car bomb exploded on a crowded
street in this capital city, killing at least 22 people and
injuring scores more.
Afghan officials said they knew of no links between the two
attacks, which were among the worst incidents of violence since the
defeat of the Taliban militia and the installation of the Karzai
government late last year. Vice President Abdul Qadir was
assassinated in Kabul by unknown gunmen in July.
But the officials said they had been expecting possible terrorist
actions this week because of two upcoming anniversaries of violent
events that had a major impact on Afghanistan: the assassination of
former Afghan militia leader Ahmed Shah Massoud last Sept. 9 and
the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon
last Sept. 11.
"The leaders of Taliban and al Qaeda are on the run, they are
struggling for survival, they are trying to show their
organizations are not fully destroyed," Foreign Minister Abdullah
told journalists tonight. "This just strengthens our commitment and
determination in the war against terrorism, and it is further
evidence that the war against terrorism is far from over."
Karzai, who was in Kandahar for a family wedding, had just stepped
into a car outside the provincial governor's office when a
uniformed gunman opened fire directly in front of the vehicle,
officials said. Karzai was uninjured, but Gov. Gul Agha Sherzoi, a
passenger in the same vehicle, was wounded in the neck, and a U.S.
special forces soldier guarding the president was also wounded.
Karzai's car was in a heavily guarded convoy, but large crowds had
turned out to greet him, and the president had leaned out of his
window to greet an Afghan boy when the unidentified gunman began
shooting, according to news reports. American special forces guards
leapt from a jeep in the convoy and fired, killing the assassin and
two other people. Abdullah said an Afghan guard was also
killed.
Afterward, Karzai spoke to journalists at the governor's guest
house, saying,"I'm fine. I expect things like this to happen."
Karzai, 44, has been protected by U.S. special forces since shortly
after the assassination of Vice-President Qadir July 6. Karzai has
no armed forces under his command, and the Afghan Defense Ministry
and security agencies are controlled by his political rivals.
When news of the 6:30 p.m. attack on Karzai reached Kabul, the
capital of 2 million was already reeling from the massive
mid-afternoon explosion, which left an entire city block covered
with shattered glass and bloodstains and sent thousands of
panic-stricken people fleeing in cars and on bicycles from the
crowded city center.
The impact of the bomb, planted in a parked taxi, was especially
devastating because the narrow street in the heart of Kabul's
downtown was filled with shoppers making purchases before the
weekly Friday Muslim holiday, and because the device detonated just
moments after a smaller bomb exploded nearby, drawing many
onlookers to the scene.
The second explosion shattered windows in dozens of shops, offices
and a hotel across the street, leaving dozens of bystanders with
wounds from hurtling glass shards. Trails of bloody footprints led
from the spot where a row of parked cars was charred black, and
sidewalk vendors' stalls were reduced to rubble.
"I
heard the first explosion and I went to the door to look. Then I
heard a louder one and saw a big fire. People were lying on the
street and screaming for help," said Najeeb Shahabi, 28, a
California resident who was visiting his father's electronics shop
a few feet from the blast. "It was a terrible experience. I want to
go home to the States, and I think I won't come back."
Wounded people were loaded into taxis and rushed to half a dozen
hospitals in the city, where doctors and survivors said between 80
and 100 people were treated for injuries. At least 10 were
confirmed dead, but officials said tonight that the death toll was
rising because many of the injuries were serious. Police stopped
and searched hundreds of vehicles all afternoon, causing massive
traffic jams.
An
Afghan soldier looks at damaged cars following an explosion in a
busy market area of Kabul, Afghanistan today that killed at least
12 people in the bloodiest attack here since the fall of the
Taliban.
"This is the work of terrorists, of al Qaeda. It is a crime against
Islam, against Afghanistan, against humanity," said Khalil
Aminzada, a city police official at the bomb scene. "These groups
were defeated, but now they are showing their terrible face again.
If we do not destroy them, these things will keep happening."
The two attacks followed a series of smaller explosions that have
occurred in Kabul since mid-August, including one bomb left at the
Telecommunications Ministry, another inside a movie theater and a
third next to a United Nations guest house. These blasts caused
little damage and few injuries, and officials described them as
warnings or harassment from unknown groups.
But today's bomb was clearly aimed at inflicting serious harm and
sowing public panic in the capital, which is heavily patrolled by
about 4,500 members of an international peacekeeping force while
the fledgling government trains a national police force and
army.
Both officials and witnesses speculated that the twin attacks were
timed to coincide with the two anniversaries of the violent attacks
last September, and especially with preparations for a series of
public memorials for Massoud, a national hero who fought against
Soviet occupation and Taliban rule and was killed by a bomb in
Afghanistan's Panjshir Valley one year ago.
There were also suggestions that Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, the renegade
former Islamic militia leader and one-time prime minister, might
have been behind the attacks. Hekmatyar, who has been a fugitive
since March and has previously called for a "holy war" against U.S.
forces here, issued a taped message two days ago that called for
Afghans to rise up against the government and against U.S. forces
in Afghanistan.
"All true Muslim Afghans who want an Islamic government . . . must
know it is possible only when the United States and allied soldiers
are forced out. We must all unite and rise against them," Hekmatyar
said in a tape delivered to news offices in Peshawar, Pakistan.
The message also said that international forces "cannot maintain
law and peace" in Afghanistan, and it accused U.S. forces of waging
"genocide" against ethnic Pashtuns by allying with ethnic Tajik
militias in their anti-terrorist operations. Afghan and foreign
military officials believe Hekmatyar may have formed an alliance
with the remnants of Taliban and al Qaeda forces still hiding in
the border areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan.
( September 6, 2002)
