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Afghan Commander, Bodyguards, Killed in Ambush
A military commander belonging to the Afghan faction of ethnic Uzbek warlord Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum and two of his bodyguards were killed on Tuesday in an ambush in the trouble-plagued north. Commander Shahi was driving to the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif when his car was ambushed in the Char Bolak area about 18 miles to the west, one of Dostum's deputies, General Majid Roozi, told Reuters. The identity of Shahi's assailants was not known, but Dostum's faction has a tense rivalry with the Jamiat-e-Islami group led by ethnic Tajik Ustad Atta Mohammad. Shahi, who led about 300 fighters, served for more than 15 years as a commander for Dostum.Although Dostum and Atta are both members of the central government of President Hamid Karzai, their forces have clashed repeatedly in the past year for control of territory in the north. Shahi's killing came a week after bitter clashes between Atta and Dostum's fighters in Maimana, the capital of Faryab province, in which 16 people, including one of Atta's commanders and two civilians, were killed. A temporary truce was enforced in Maimana after talks involving officials of both factions and the United Nations, but reports from the town on Tuesday said the situation remained tense and the two factions were prepared for a possible resumption of fighting. Bloods and Crips, Afghan style. Posted by: Steve 2003-04-15 |
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