'Lion of Panjshir' dies
By Anthony Davis
The leader of Afghanistan's anti-Taliban opposition, Ahmadshah Massoud, was mortally wounded by suicide bombers on 9 September, dying within minutes of the blast according to intelligence sources who spoke to Jane's Intelligence Review.
Ending a tumultuous 22 year military career battling Afghan and Soviet communists, mujahideen rivals and since 1995 the Pakistan-backed Taliban, his death throws the opposition United Front (UF) into disarray and will have a major impact on the future of the conflict.
The attack at Massoud's Khwaja Bahauddin headquarters on the Tajikistan border was carried out by two Arabs posing as journalists. During an interview in the Afghan chief's office one detonated a bomb concealed in a video camera.
Both Arabs died in the attack along with Massoud and a spokesman-interpreter, Assem Suhail. The blast badly wounded the Afghan ambassador to India, Massoud Khalili, who was also present, and a Foreign Ministry official.
The assassins are understood to have been Algerians affiliated to the al-Qaeda organisation of indicted Saudi terrorist Osama bin Laden, a major supporter and financier of the Afghan Taliban. Based in southern Afghanistan and reputedly close to Taliban supreme leader Mullah Mohammad Omar, bin Laden commands some 2,000- 3,000 Arab followers fighting in Taliban ranks and runs several training facilities.
more at: http://www.janes.com/security/international_security/news/jir/jir010911_1_n. shtml -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <../attachments/20010911/016dfb49/attachment.htm>