Seraphim
03-21-2004, 10:49 AM
http://us.news2.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/20040321/capt.kab10203211151.afghanistan_school_kab102.jpg
Afghan President Hamid Karzai, 2nd right, Minister of Education Mohammad Yonus Quanoni, right, The special envoy of the UN John Arnauld, 2nd left, and Dpt. Exec. Director of UNICEF (news - web sites) Karin Shampoo, left, stand at attention during the ceremony for the opening of schools across the country this year Sunday March 21, 2004 in Kabul, Afghanistan (news - web sites). There were fewer than one million students under the Taliban regime. None of them were girls. In the first year after liberation, over 3 million students enrolled. Las year, the number of children in school exceeded 4 million. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
By STEPHEN GRAHAM, Associated Press Writer
KABUL, Afghanistan - Afghan aviation minister Mirwais Sadiq was assassinated Sunday in the western city of Herat, a government spokesman said.
Unidentified assailants shot Sadiq in his car in Afghanistan (news - web sites)'s main western city, presidential spokesman Khaleeq Ahmed said. He had no immediate details.
Afghan state television reported that Sadiq's father, Herat governor Ismail Khan, was targeted in a separate attack but escaped unhurt. It also said the city's police and intelligence chiefs were wounded but gave no details.
Troops loyal to Khan surrounded the home of a senior military commander and a militia barracks in the city. Fighting broke out in several places, with several killed and injured.
Aid workers in the city contacted by telephone reported shots ringing out Sunday evening and said they had been ordered to hunker down.
Herat has been firmly under the control of Ismail Khan, a former anti-Soviet resistance commander who runs a large private army, since the fall of the Taliban in late 2001. There have been persistent tensions — and occasional factional fighting — between his men and those loyal to rival warlords.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai, 2nd right, Minister of Education Mohammad Yonus Quanoni, right, The special envoy of the UN John Arnauld, 2nd left, and Dpt. Exec. Director of UNICEF (news - web sites) Karin Shampoo, left, stand at attention during the ceremony for the opening of schools across the country this year Sunday March 21, 2004 in Kabul, Afghanistan (news - web sites). There were fewer than one million students under the Taliban regime. None of them were girls. In the first year after liberation, over 3 million students enrolled. Las year, the number of children in school exceeded 4 million. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
By STEPHEN GRAHAM, Associated Press Writer
KABUL, Afghanistan - Afghan aviation minister Mirwais Sadiq was assassinated Sunday in the western city of Herat, a government spokesman said.
Unidentified assailants shot Sadiq in his car in Afghanistan (news - web sites)'s main western city, presidential spokesman Khaleeq Ahmed said. He had no immediate details.
Afghan state television reported that Sadiq's father, Herat governor Ismail Khan, was targeted in a separate attack but escaped unhurt. It also said the city's police and intelligence chiefs were wounded but gave no details.
Troops loyal to Khan surrounded the home of a senior military commander and a militia barracks in the city. Fighting broke out in several places, with several killed and injured.
Aid workers in the city contacted by telephone reported shots ringing out Sunday evening and said they had been ordered to hunker down.
Herat has been firmly under the control of Ismail Khan, a former anti-Soviet resistance commander who runs a large private army, since the fall of the Taliban in late 2001. There have been persistent tensions — and occasional factional fighting — between his men and those loyal to rival warlords.