Word: kabul
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...terror been a success? Well, yes and no. "I think it's bumbling along in the right direction," says a Western diplomat in Kabul. "Probably, things will be all right." Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri, al-Qaeda's two top leaders, remain unaccounted for, and U.S. intelligence sources suspect that both are still alive. So is Mullah Mohammed Omar, the leader of the Taliban. Sources tell Time that Omar may be forging an alliance with Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a particularly dangerous former mujahedin leader--and briefly Prime Minister of Afghanistan--who slipped back into the country around February. "Hekmatyar...
...during a visit to Kandahar, the former Taliban stronghold. A man fired two shots into his car from close range. Karzai's American bodyguards immediately returned fire, killing the shooter. The attack was launched hours after a pair of bomb blasts killed at least 15 people in the capital Kabul. Dozens of people were injured by the explosion in the business district close to a market crowded with shoppers. Authorities blamed "Osama and his associates...
...primary beneficiary of the Taliban's rapid collapse had been the ethnic-Tajik "Pansjiri" faction of the Northern Alliance, the main U.S. proxy force which seized Kabul last Fall (against Washington's wishes) and became the dominant component of Karzai's government (much to the president's discomfort, although their power on the ground - and the reluctance of the U.S. to challenge it - leaves him little choice). Despite his own Pashtun roots, Karzai's ability to secure support in his heartland is imperiled by the disproportionate Tajik power in Kabul. That suits his Pashtun enemies: Since the Spring, the Taliban...
...back Herat warlord Ismail Khan (hardliners in Tehran may even be assisting Hekmatyar, despite his expulsion by the government in February), that Russia is backing the Pansjiris and that elements in Pakistan may be harboring Taliban and al-Qaeda elements to make their own proxy bid for power in Kabul if the U.S. begins to withdraw...
...their place, and the International Security Assistance Force composed primarily of European troops (currently led by Turkey). And the reluctance of the U.S. to sanction any expansion of the peacekeeping mission beyond the 4,000 ISAF troops currently in the capital has earned Karzai the unkind nickname "Mayor of Kabul," since his writ doesn't run much beyond the city limits. Even there, some U.S. foreign policy experts believe he's in danger both from the Pansjiris and from the increasingly confident anti-Karzai jihadis...