Word: kabul
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...those who would undermine the authority of the interim government of Hamid Karzai. Yet last week, the Tehran government claims, it was asked by both Karzai and Washington to hold off on expelling a fanatically anti-American warlord who has been organizing a campaign against the new government in Kabul and its U.S. backers. Administration officials deny that the U.S. has made such requests...
...Iran?s curious claim concerns the paunchy Pashtun warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who currently lives in Tehran. The former prime minister who has fought against every Afghan government since 1979 has made no exception of the latest administration in Kabul. He recently told an interviewer that Karzai's government "has no value or meaning" as long as foreign troops remain in Afghanistan...
...resentment is being exploited by some long-standing U.S. enemies. The forces of the local Ittehad e-Islami faction, for example, appear to have made common cause with the Hizb e-Islami of Tehran-based warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who has vowed to fight the U.S. and its allies in Kabul. Intelligence sources in Afghanistan even fear that these forces may be forging links with the remnants of the Taliban and al-Qaeda to harass American and allied forces. Local sources allege that Hekmatyar's loyalists may have been behind the three attacks on the U.S. airbase at Kandahar...
...Kabul, too, the new order is looking a little shaky. Last week's mob murder of a government minister is being interpreted as a sign of mounting ethnic tension within Karzai's government (always an unlikely alliance of Northern Alliance commanders and Pashtun royalists). And two attacks on British peacekeeping troops in Kabul in the past week has underscored a sense that even the capital's streets are not entirely secure...
...What can the U.S. do about it? Karzai has appealed for the international community to beef up its 4,000-strong peacekeeping force and extend its operations beyond Kabul. But the response, thus far, has been tepid. Although the U.S. remains opposed to participating, the State Department has proposed that the U.S. offer logistical and intelligence support - and offer rescue missions - to entice others to send more troops. But the Pentagon prefers accelerated efforts to build a new national army for Afghanistan, which the U.S. would help train, organize and equip in order to allow Afghans...