Afghan soldiers tried to assassinate the country's defense minister Saturday by shooting at his convoy at Kabul's main airport, but the official had already left his vehicle and was unhurt, a Defense Ministry spokesman said. Nine suspects, all soldiers, were arrested in the attack on Rahim Wardak, said Gen. Mohammed Saher Azimi. "It is clear that it was an assassination attempt on the defense minister," he said.| Brilliant, general, brilliant! |
The shooting occurred a week before landmark legislative elections that Taliban rebels have vowed to disrupt. The militants have stepped up attacks across much of the country, leaving more than 1,200 people dead in the past six months. The motive for the shooting was not immediately clear. A senior government official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the matter, said earlier the soldiers were angered by a pay dispute.
After the attack, the ministers flew to the Panjshir Valley for a memorial service in honor of Ahmed Shah Masood, the former head of the U.S.-backed Northern Alliance who was killed by two suspected al-Qaida assassins on Sept. 9, 2001. After the memorial, another helicopter carrying the country's army chief, Bismillah Khan, and a Cabinet minister crashed shortly after takeoff and exploded in flames. All those on board managed to escape the burning wreckage. The pilot and Sediqa Balkhi, the minister for the disabled, were injured slightly, according to an Associated Press photographer who witnessed the crash. Presidential spokesman Khaleeq Ahmed said the crash occurred because the chopper's rotor blades clipped a tree during takeoff.
| "Hey! Who put that tree there! They're trying to kill me, I tell you!" |