Afghanistan: Dostum warlord received in Kabul by deadly attack claimed by ISIS

Afghanistan: Dostum warlord welcomed to Kabul by deadly attack claimed by IS
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AFP
/ NOORULLAH SHIRZADA

General Abdul Rashid Dostum, a dreaded warlord in northern Afghanistan and first vice-president back in Kabul after a year in exile in Turkey, was greeted by a suicide bombing on Sunday. airport claimed by Islamic State (IS) group.

Khamikaze explosion killed at least 14 people and injured sixty, latest Kabul police spokesman Hashmat said Stanikzai. "Nine members of the security forces and the police are among those killed," he said.

The bombing hit the airport gates as the official convoy left the scene in the middle of a dense crowd. According to his spokesman, the Uzbek general is "unscathed", however victims are to be deplored among the spectators, said Najib Danish, spokesman of the ministry, without further details.

Very many ambulances were immediately rushes on the spot.

This attack was claimed in a statement by IS jihadists via their propaganda agency Amaq, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which specializes in monitoring Islamist websites.

Accused of rape on a rival at the end of 2016, Dostum, who had left the country in May 2017 to escape justice, was greeted as a hero by a delegation of Afghan officials and dozens of supporters, mainly members of the Uzbek community. [19659003] The plane specially chartered by the Afghan government to bring him back from Ankara landed at 4.30 pm (noon GMT), waited on the red carpet by a hedge of officials and enthusiastic supporters.

D ostum, who is due to resume his duties as vice-president despite the investigation against him, appeared on the bridge in city dress, white shirt and red tie, surrounded by his personal guard.

He immediately won his offices Vice-President, to whom again hundreds of supporters were waiting for him.

Among the officials who came to celebrate, former Vice President Ahmad Zia Mbadoud, brother of the late Commander Ahmad Shah Mbadoud, several times betrayed by Dostum , was present as well as the other northern figure, Atta Mohammad Noor, and the leader of the Shiite Hazara community, Mohammad Mohaqiq.

Atta, Mbadoud and Mohaqiq are key figureheads of the opposition to President Ashraf Ghani

Impunity for the "Butcher of Kabul"

Sunday morning portraits of Dostum had blossomed in the streets of Kabul, along the airport road and around the presidential palace, accompanied by "Welcome" in Dari and English

Of Uzbek ethnicity, about sixty years old, Dostum has been collecting the facts for decades of war and the worst abuses – like the death of 2,000 Taliban locked up in containers.

An investigation was launched in January 2017 by Afghan justice under pressure from Westerners after he ordered his personal guard to capture his rival Ahmad Ishchi, a former badagenarian governor, for having sequestered, tortured and tortured him. sodomizing with an AK-47 badault rifle

Embarrbaded, because Dostum is vice-president of a power with delicate balances, Ashraf Ghani had had to resolve to this investigation after the indignation of officials of the United States, of the European Union and Canada

Dostum is the second Afghan warlord to return to the capital with honors.

In May 2017, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, nicknamed by the press "the butcher of Kabul" for having martyred him by merciless bombing in the 90s, had returned after 20 years of absence at the end of an agreement with the government guarantees him impunity

The Afghan government is in a fragile situation in the north with the push of the IS in the province of Jawzjan, the stronghold of Dostum, and that of the Taliban in the province of Faryab.

Civil unrest has also recently broken out, causing several deaths, following the arrest in early July of a relative of Dostum, Nizamuddin Qaisari, commander of the local police also leading a militia of several thousand. men. He is accused of insults and death threats against the authorities.

Since Turkey, General Dostum had denounced the arrest of his ally and warned that the defense of the north "could collapse" against the Taliban and to the Islamic State group.

In the run-up to the October and presidential elections scheduled for 2019, Ashraf Ghani needs to bring a minimum of stability to the country, but his offers of peace to the Taliban have remained so far. without effect.

22/07/2018 21:22:04 –
Kabul (AFP) –
© 2018 AFP