Word: afghanistan
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...week's end the new regime was already operating-"in the name of Allah," as its communiques put it-out of temporary headquarters in the government radio station. Afghanistan's customary seat of power, the sprawling Royal Palace compound in the heart of Kabul, was unusable. During the coup, the elegant mansions that had been occupied by Daoud and his advisers since they themselves seized power in 1973 were battered by a ring of rebel tanks supported by rocketing planes. Daoud, his aides, their wives and children, and many members of the 2,000-man palace guard were...
...regime would be the Prime Minister, Noor Mohammed Taraki, 61. He is a soft-spoken novelist and journalist who was once (1952-53) an attaché at the Afghan embassy in Washington. More recently, as leader of the 15,000-member Khalq (Masses) Party, Afghanistan's principal Communist faction, Taraki led a campaign against the domination of the long powerful Mohammed Zahir family, to which both Daoud and the cousin-King he had deposed belonged. Taraki was periodically imprisoned for his activities; indeed, he was in jail when the coup erupted two weeks ago, and one reason that...
...announcements by Radio Kabul in Persian and Pushtu were brief but to the point: tanks and infantry loyal to a "military revolutionary council" had surrounded the presidential palace in Afghanistan's capital. President Mohammed Daoud, 68, and his younger brother and political confidant, Mohammed Nairn, had been killed after they "madly" resisted the coup. A new regime was in control, led by Col. Abdul Kadir, 37, the air force chief of staff...
...Afghanistan, where settling old political scores through the barrel of a gun is practically a tradition, the coup was relatively tidy. The rebels struck just after the Daoud regime had sealed the country's borders to tighten security before a meeting of foreign ministers of 25 non-aligned countries that was due to begin in Kabul late this week. Though some 200 people had died in five hours of fighting in the capital, by week's end the new rulers appeared to be consolidating their power. Their first priority seemed to be to explain to Afghanistan...
Surrounded by such ideologically diverse powers as the Soviet Union, China, Pakistan and Iran, Afghanistan has traditionally pursued a neutral foreign policy, and the new regime endorsed that posture. Although Daoud had bargained for Soviet arms aid when he was Prime Minister, he had lately shown a distinct admiration for antiCommunists, including the Shah of Iran, with whom he dickered for a big aid program, and Saudi Arabia's King Khlid, whom he visited in February. Daoud's successors could want to replace his Western-tilted "neutrality" with a Soviet-leaning version...