Shots near Afghan minister not murder bid -ministry

KABUL (Reuters) – Shots fired near the Afghan defense
minister were not an assassination attempt as originally
thought but the result of a dispute among soldiers, a ministry
spokesman said on Sunday.

Shots were fired toward minister Abdul Rahim Wardak’s
vehicle on Saturday shortly after he had got out at Kabul
airport to catch a helicopter flight.

The incident came just over a week before parliamentary
elections, the next big step in Afghanistan’s difficult path to
stability. Wardak is not running.

The Defense Ministry initially said the shooting by men in
uniform was a bungled assassination attempt, but spokesman
Zahir Azimi said an investigation had determined the firing was
the result of an arguement.

“Soldiers and officers were involved in a clash among
themselves when the defense minister’s car was by accident
passing,” Azimi told a briefing.

Hours after the shooting, a helicopter carrying army chief
General Bismillah Khan, two cabinet ministers and other
government officials crash-landed north of Kabul.

No one was seriously hurt and Azimi said the crash was an
accident.

Security is tight in the run-up to the parliamentary and
provincial elections, which have been denounced by Taliban
insurgents.

Azimi said 27 insurgents had been killed in an operation by
Afghan government troops and U.S. forces in Helmand province in
the south launched on Friday.

Forty-five suspected militants had been detained, he said.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. military, which has about 20,000
troops in Afghanistan, confirmed a joint Afghan-U.S. operation
was under way in the area but she declined to give details.

A Taliban spokesman confirmed the fighting but said only
three Taliban had been killed. The spokesman, Abdul Latif
Hakimi, said eight Americans had been killed and 48 villagers
captured.

U.S. and Afghan government troops have been mounting a
series of sweeps to root out pockets of militants and try to
ensure a peaceful vote.

Azimi said 27 other insurgents had been killed in various
clashes in the south and east over the past week.

More than 1,000 people have been killed in violence this
year, most of them militants but including 49 U.S. troops.