Two alleged Arabs, posing as journalists, who carried out the assassination Sunday attempt on the life of veteran Afghan resistance leader, Ahmad Shah Masood, were killed, an official said.
Masood is also the chief of the United Front (UF) anti-Taliban Forces.
Masood's aide, Yunus Qanooni, was quoted by the official Iranian News Agency (IRNA) as telling Azadi Afghan
Radio that the "Masood’s wounds are not life-threatening," as the commander was flown to neighboring Tajikistan for treatment.
Assem Suhail, a spokesman for the 49-year-old Afghan military leader, was killed in the incident, and Afghan Ambassador to New Dehli, Masood Khalili, who was accompanying Massoud at that time, was also injured.
There is no update about Khalili's condition.
Qanooni said that the two perpetrators, claiming to be journalists, either detonated a booby-trapped hand-held camera or an explosive charge that was presumably strapped to one of the men was detonated by remote control by the second man.
The nationality of the two bombers has not been determined yet, he said.
UF sources told the radio that the two bombers had traveled to Parwan and Kapisa provinces prior to meeting Masood near Khwaja Bahaudin in Takhar, and met with other UF leaders, including head of the Islamic State, Burhanudin Rabani and his ally Prof. A. R. Rasul Sayaf.
Thousands of Arab and other nationals allied with the Taliban and Saudi dissident Osama Bin Laden are fighting in Afghanistan to capture territory held by Masood, who is also Defense Minister in the UN-recognized Islamic
State of Afghanistan, ousted by the Taliban and its foreign supporters from Kabul in 1996.
Masood has accused the Taliban and extremist foreign militants in Afghanistan of aggression, civilian atrocities and grave human rights violations.
The UF alliance headed by Masood also includes Ismael Khan, Haji Abdul Qadeer, Ustad Khalili, S. Hussein Anwari, Bismillah Khan and other veterans of the anti-Soviet occupation Afghan resistance in the 1980s, who are now fighting against Taliban domination of the
Country – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
