Falling Out Among Thugs Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit Sun Feb 17, 3:40 AM ET (via Yahoo) Fresh Clash in Afghan North, Aid Warehouse Hit MAZAR-I-SHARIF, Afghanistan (Reuters) - A warehouse belonging to an aid agency was hit by a rocket during a fresh outbreak of fighting between commanders from rival factions in the new Afghan interim government, aid officials said on Sunday. One official said an aid worker in the town of Khulm, about 32 miles east of the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, had told him that the warehouse was hit Saturday night in crossfire between troops loyal to the rival commanders. He said about 30 soldiers had been wounded in the fighting, the latest flare-up between the mainly ethnic Uzbek Junbish-i-Milli faction, led by warlord and Deputy Defense Minister Abdul Rashid Dostum, and the mainly ethnic Tajik Jamiat-i-Islami faction, which is seen as loyal to Defense Minister Mohammad Fahim. The aid official said the dispute began three days ago when nine commanders loyal to a Dostum leader, Ustad Kabir, defected to a Jamiat commander. Kabir attacked troops loyal to the Jamiat commander when he refused to return the nine commanders to his control. The aid official said Kabir had now been driven out of the town, but the situation there was extremely tense. The warehouse was operated by an Afghan aid group working under GOAL, an Irish aid agency. Some 40 members of the rival factions were killed in fighting in recent weeks. The violence has thrown into question the ability of the U.N.-backed interim government to impose order as old tribal and ethnic hostility resurfaces in the wake of the defeat of the hard-line Taliban. The report of fresh violence in the north will only compound deep worry about security in Afghanistan (news - web sites) and follows the murder of a government minister in Kabul Thursday and the first attack on international security force men, also in the capital, Saturday. There has recently been a spate of attacks on aid agency officials in Mazar-i-Sharif. A worker for the UN children's agency UNICEF (news - web sites) was shot and seriously wounded Saturday after gunmen tried to kidnap him, while another aid official is missing, suspected kidnapped earlier last week. Aid agency officials say security in the area is deteriorating despite efforts to rid city centers of armed men, who have yet to be demobilized following the U.S.-led war against the Taliban. * And on Feb 15, we were told one gang of thugs (a group of "senior officials") in the US-sponsored "interim Afghan government" assassinated the Transport Minister in a "personal vendetta." The credulous earlier report about a group of crazed Haj pilgrims killing the minister in a rage is follows the latest news. Fri Feb 15, 1:01 PM ET (via yahoo) Officials: Afghan Minister's Killing Was Planned KABUL (Reuters) - Afghanistan (news - web sites)'s leadership on Friday said the killing of the minister for air transport and tourism, beaten to death at Kabul airport, had been a personal vendetta planned by senior officials in the government among others. Abdul Rahman was pulled off an airliner on Thursday evening and beaten to death by an angry mob. "As you are aware, we had a very tragic incident yesterday in which Dr. Abdul Rahman...was assassinated, martyred," Karzai told a news conference. "We have made some arrests, we will be making more arrests." Information minister Raheen Makhdoom, sitting alongside Karzai, said three people had been detained, adding: "It has been found that the head of political affairs of the national security (intelligence) department, General Abdullah Jan Tawhidi; General Qalandar Beg, deputy defense minister for technical affairs; and an attorney called Halim were involved in the incident." He said two others had also been involved. The three named officials flew to Saudi Arabia late on Thursday and Afghanistan requested they be arrested and returned, Makhdoom said. "This tragic incident was the result of a personal vendetta and private hostilities of a group of people. It has no political roots," he said. Rahman was originally reported to have been lynched by enraged Muslims frustrated at not being able to travel to Mecca for the Haj pilgrimage. The case has highlighted the problems facing Afghanistan's U.S.-backed interim government as it grapples to reconcile rival ethnic groups and rebuild a volatile nation recovering from more than two decades of war. Karzai said the cabinet had convened an emergency session immediately after the killing to launch an investigation. "Afghanistan will not tolerate such activity," he said. * Earlier credulous coverage: Fri Feb 15, 3:05 AM ET - via Yahoo Angry Haj Pilgrims Kill Afghan Minister KABUL, Feb 15 (Reuters)--The Afghan interim minister for air transport and tourism was beaten to death by frustrated Haj pilgrims who dragged him off a plane at Kabul airport, witnesses and an official said Friday. Abdul Rahman was pulled off Ariana Airlines' only aircraft, which he had commissioned to take him to New Delhi Thursday. Haj pilgrims told Reuters he was thrown down the aircraft steps and beaten to death on the tarmac. Saudi officials have said pilgrims coming from abroad must arrive by Sunday to be able to perform the Haj, which Islamic scriptures urge every-able bodied adult Muslim who can afford it to do. "Four people went inside the plane and dragged him out and killed him on the spot," said a pilgrim named Mirza. Foreign ministry spokesman Omar Samad said the interim government had met late Thursday to discuss the killing. "The cabinet held a meeting about this late last night and described it as a criminal tragedy," Samad told Reuters. An official at the air transport ministry confirmed the killing, but declined to give details. "Unfortunately (the minister) is no longer with us," the official said. Visiting British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw offered his condolences when he met his counterpart, Abdullah Abdullah, at the foreign ministry in Kabul. "I am very sorry to hear about the death of the minister in such terrible circumstances," Straw told Abdullah. SOME PILGRIMS ARRESTED Mirza said the pilgrims had camped at the airport for two days waiting for a flight to Mecca. He said they had paid $1,500 for the trip, a fortune for ordinary Afghans. "If we cannot fly today someone else will get killed," Mirza said. Samad said some of the pilgrims had been arrested and a commission of five ministers set up to investigate the killing. The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), the multinational force helping to maintain security in the capital, is deployed in the military section of Kabul airport, but Afghan security forces guard the civilian side. "It seems the security forces were overwhelmed and the situation got out of control," Samad said. The head of Ariana Airlines, Roohullah Aman, was injured in the riot, but his life was not in danger, Samad said. Afghan pilgrims have continued to travel to Mecca through more than two decades of war in their homeland. Despite grinding poverty there has never been a shortage of applicants. More than a million Muslims flock to Saudi Arabia every year for the pilgrimage. ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytmid-02.19.02-01:55:12-4174