Word: panjshir
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...beyond the tactical why, there is also a lesson in looking at how the man known as the Lion of Panjshir was taken out. The suicide bomber had come to Massoud's mountain headquarters posing as a television reporter, and his video camera was wired with explosives. The plotters' awareness that Massoud could be tempted by a broadcast opportunity required only a basic knowledge of his strategy. Like any military man hoping to transform his battlefield exploits into popular leadership, Massoud had to make his case publicly. This is the time-honored creation of the cult of the noble warrior...
...President Hamid Karzai's government is led by Pashtuns from the south and east of the country, and Tajiks from Massoud's Panjshir valley stronghold feel marginalized. Foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah, the last member of the powerful Panjshiri elite to hold a cabinet post, was dropped by Karzai in a reshuffle earlier this year. "The Panjshiris who led the Northern Alliance are angry because they have been ostracized and shut out from positions of power by this government," said Michael Shaikh, an analyst with Human Rights Watch...
...Karzai won a comfortable victory in the October presidential polls, with 55% of the vote, but the process opened dangerous ethnic fault lines. Karzai was the overwhelming winner among his fellow Pashtuns, but he received less than 1% in the northern, Tajik-majority province of Panjshir. Washington can assist Karzai by speeding up the flow of foreign aid and by ensuring that it reaches the far corners of a country that has been ravaged by a six-year drought. With a little help from NATO friends, Washington must also extend the reach of the military civil-reconstruction teams into...
...after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. That was how "John," one of the SOG's paramilitary officers, unexpectedly found himself peering out the open window of a Soviet-made Mi-17 helicopter that day as it soared over the Anjuman Pass and into the Panjshir Valley, northeast of Kabul. Just ahead on the ground, John spotted a patrol of bearded men in turbans toting AK-47 rifles...
...Akbar is an urbane, educated and thoughtful military man who is currently teaching himself English. A Soviet-educated professional soldier, he had been one of many who left the communist regime during the Soviet occupation to join the resistance in the Panjshir Valley led by the charismatic Ahmad Shah Massoud. He fought in the Northern Alliance against the Taliban and was on the frontlines during last year's U.S.-led bombing campaign. In the new order of president Hamid Karzai, Akbar is a man on the rise. Though he owes his position to the powerful defense minister, Mohammed Qasim Fahim...