MAZAR-I-SHARIF, Afghanistan - A fghanistan's vice president, Abdul Rashid Dostum, escaped unhurt from an attack that killed one of his bodyguards on Saturday, dodging death for the second time since returning from exile last year.



Attackers ambushed Dostum's convoy on the way from Mazar-i-Sharif, a city in Balkh province, to Jawzjan province in northern Afghanistan, said Bashir Ahmad Tayenj, spokesman for Dostum's Junbish Party. Two other bodyguards were wounded.Dostum was aware of a planned attack but decided to travel anyway, the spokesman added.



No group took immediate responsibility for the apparent assassination attempt, which comes eight months after Dostum avoided injury in a suicide bombing at Kabul airport.



The attack, which was claimed by Islamic State, took place as he returned home from more than a year in exile in Turkey over allegations of torturing and abusing a political rival.



Dostum had left Afghanistan after heavy pressure from Western donors including the United States.



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`; document.getElementById("linkPremium").innerHTML = cont; (function (v, i){ });</s>FILE PHOTO: Afghan Vice President Abdul Rashid Dostum arrives at the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, July 22, 2018.REUTERS/Omar Sobhani

MAZAR-I-SHARIF, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Afghanistan’s vice president, Abdul Rashid Dostum, escaped unhurt from an attack that killed one of his bodyguards on Saturday, dodging death for the second time since returning from exile last year.

Attackers ambushed Dostum’s convoy on the way from Mazar-i-Sharif, a city in Balkh province, to Jawzjan province in northern Afghanistan, said Bashir Ahmad Tayenj, spokesman for Dostum’s Junbish Party. Two other bodyguards were wounded.

Dostum was aware of a planned attack but decided to travel anyway, the spokesman added.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the assassination attempt, which comes eight months after Dostum avoided injury in a suicide bombing at Kabul airport. In a tweet, the militant group’s spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, said four guards were killed and six wounded in the attack.

Last summer’s bombing, which was claimed by Islamic State, took place as Dostum returned home from more than a year in exile in Turkey over allegations of torturing and abusing a political rival.

Dostum had left Afghanistan after heavy pressure from Western donors including the United States.

Less than a year since his return, the general remains a significant, if polarizing, political figure. His Junbish Party is supported mainly by his fellow ethnic Uzbeks.

Dostum has joined the election team of Afghan Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah, one of several contenders in a presidential election scheduled for Sept. 28.</s>Kabul: Taliban fighters on Saturday attacked a convoy carrying Afghanistan's vice president Abdul Rashid Dostum, in an assault that left the former warlord unscathed but killed one of his bodyguards, an official told AFP.

Enayatullah Babur, Dostum's former chief of staff, said the hour-long attack also left several others in the convoy wounded.

The attack occurred in the northern province of Balkh, where Dostum had held a rally earlier in the day.

On Twitter, a Taliban spokesman said the insurgent group had carried out the attack and claimed four of Dostum's bodyguards had been killed.

Dostum, a powerful ethnic Uzbek leader, is notorious in Afghanistan for extreme barbarities and for repeatedly switching loyalties over 40 years of conflict.

Despite a catalogue of war crimes attached to his name and accusations of organising the rape and torture of a political rival, Dostum became Afghanistan's first vice president in 2014.

At the rally in Balkh, Dostum had claimed he could clear northern Afghanistan of the Taliban within six months — if only the government would let him.

In delayed elections now slated for September, President Ashraf Ghani has chosen to run with Amrullah Saleh, an ethnic Tajik, instead of Dostum.

Dostum has survived several other attempts on his life, including one claimed by the Islamic State group last July in Kabul that killed 23 people including AFP driver Mohammad Akhtar.

Firstpost is now on WhatsApp. For the latest analysis, commentary and news updates, sign up for our WhatsApp services. Just go to Firstpost.com/Whatsapp and hit the Subscribe button.</s>KABUL, Afghanistan: An Afghan official says that Afghanistan’s vice president, Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum, has escaped unharmed after Taliban ambushed his convoy while traveling form northern Balkh to neighboring Zawzjan province.

Munir Ahmad Farhad, spokesman for the provincial governor of Balkh, said Sunday that a security guard in the convoy was killed, and two others wounded, in the attack.

Farhad says Taliban militants attacked the convoy at two points, in the Char Bolak and then Faiz Abad district, Saturday afternoon.

A statement by Afghanistan’s army says four Taliban were killed, and seven others wounded, during the two assaults.

Zabihullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, claimed responsibility for the attack against Dostum.</s>Afghanistan's controversial Vice President Abdul Rashid Dostum has escaped unhurt from a suspected Taliban attack that killed one of his bodyguards, police said.

A regional police spokesman said attackers ambushed Dostum's convoy on March 30 on the way from Mazar-e Sharif, a city in Balkh Province, to Jawzjan Province in northern Afghanistan.

On Twitter, a Taliban spokesman said its militants had carried out the attack and claimed four of Dostum's bodyguards had been killed.

The apparent assassination attempt on Dostum comes eight months after the ethnic Uzbek former warlord avoided injury in a suicide bombing at Kabul airport.

That attack, which was claimed by Islamic State, took place as he returned home from more than a year in exile in Turkey after he was accused of being involved in the rape and torture of a political rival. Dostum denied the charges.

Dostum, accused of human rights abuses, remains a powerful figure in Afghanistan. His Junbish Party is supported mainly by his fellow ethnic Uzbeks.

Dostum has joined the election team of Afghan Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah, one of several contenders in a presidential election scheduled for September 28.

With reporting by Reuters and AFP</s>Vice President of Afghanistan, Gen. Abdul Rasheed Dostum on Saturday survived a Taliban assault on his convoy in the northern Balkh province, officials and local media confirmed.

Spokesman for the Afghan National Police in Balkh, Adil Shah, told Anadolu Agency the convoy of Gen. Dostum was attacked by the insurgents in the restive Chahar Bolak district of the province. He said exchange of fire between the armed guards of the vice president and the Taliban continued for hours in the afternoon.

The local Tolo News reported one guard of the vice president got killed and two others got injured in this incident.

Gen. Dostum returned to Afghanistan from a visit to Uzbekistan, and was on his way to his hometown Jawzjan when the Taliban attacked him.

Owing responsibility for the attack, the Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahed claimed in a statement the convoy of Gen. Dostum was ambushed in late afternoon. He claimed four guards were killed and six wounded in this attack.

In a short public address before embarking on this road trip, Gen. Dostum told his supporters in Balkh he can clean all 15 northern province of the presence of the Taliban if the peace process failed to yield any result.</s>Taliban insurgents repeatedly ambushed the convoy of Vice President Abdurrashid Dostum and killed two of his guards, Afghan officials said Sunday, but the powerful former warlord escaped injury.

Dostum, a general officer and member of Afghanistan’s Uzbek minority, was traveling in the north of the country when his heavily armed entourage came under fire.

“By the grace of God, the general was unharmed,” Bashir Ahmad Tayenj, an aide to Dostum, said by telephone. Tayenj was with Dostum when the three ambushes occurred Saturday evening.

“The fighting was intense,” he added, saying that four Taliban insurgents also were killed.

In a statement, the Taliban asserted responsibility for the assassination attempt, which comes as peace negotiations between the group and the United States are underway. Parallel talks are also being held between the Taliban and various Afghan power brokers.

[One of Afghanistan’s most divisive figures — who is also a vice president — returns from exile]

Dostum, a controversial figure who has been accused by political rivals of rape and torture, had gone to Balkh province to evaluate the security situation and consult his followers on the delicate peace process, from which the Afghan government has been excluded.

Six of Dostum’s bodyguards were injured in the attack, which continued into his native Jowzjan province, local official Ana Murad Shahi said.

Although talks are accelerating, with prospects for a peaceful settlement on the table for the first time in the nearly 18-year war, there has been an uptick in fighting that experts say is expected as all sides try to increase their leverage.

The Taliban has refused to engage with the government, branding it as an American puppet. Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah, who leads the unity government with President Ashraf Ghani, said the assault on Dostum raised the stakes.

“Taliban miscreants must know that with every attack they carry out on our political leaders, our resolve gets further strengthened to defeat them,” Abdullah said in a statement.

The U.S. envoy for peace in Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, was due in the country on Sunday as part of his latest multicountry diplomatic tour aimed at building consensus and establishing the next steps of the peace process.

This is not the first time Dostum has survived an assassination attempt by the Taliban, which also targeted him in 2003. The group has long reviled Dostum, who allegedly suffocated hundreds of Taliban prisoners in sealed truck containers at the start of the war.

Once described by the State Department as a “quintessential warlord,” Dostum’s mercurial switching of sides throughout Afghanistan’s four decades of conflict, going back to the Soviet invasion in 1979, have earned him legions of followers and enemies alike.

Over the past decade, Dostum has been sent into exile in Turkey twice by the Kabul leadership for extreme violence.

When he returned to Kabul last year after time away related to sexual assault charges, the government welcomed him back. He is yet to face prosecution.

Afghan government, shut out of U.S.-Taliban peace talks, running short on options

One of Afghanistan’s most divisive figures — also a Vice President — returns from exile

Today’s coverage from Post correspondents around the world

Like Washington Post World on Facebook and stay updated on foreign news</s>A day after Afghanistan’s First Vice President, General Abdul Rashid Dostum, narrowly survived an assassination attempt, the Taliban vowed Sunday the former warlord remains one of their prime targets.

Officials in Afghanistan have confirmed Dostum’s convoy came under a Taliban attack Saturday evening in the northern Balkh province that killed one of his security guards and wounded several others.

Regional security officials and close aides of the powerful ethnic Uzbek leader said he was traveling back Saturday evening to his native neighboring province of Jawzjan when insurgents ambushed the convoy.

Both sides suffered casualties in the ensuing hour-long intense gunfight but Dostum escaped unhurt, they added.

The Taliban swiftly took credit for plotting the assassination attempt, saying it killed four loyalists of Dostum, including a key commander.

A regional Afghan military statement claimed that five Taliban assailants were killed and many more were wounded.

“Dostum has long been our target and we have never given any undertaking not to attack him,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told VOA when asked whether the raid could undermine their ongoing peace talks with the United States. Mujahid also rejected as baseless propaganda official statements claiming Saturday’s ambush killed or injured any Taliban fighters.

Dostum had landed in Balkh from a foreign trip and addressed a public gathering in the provincial capital of Mazar-i-Sharif hours before his convoy was attacked, party and police officials said.

In his speech to the gathering, the powerful politician had asserted that if given the opportunity he would “eliminate” the Taliban from northern Afghanistan in “just six months.”

Saturday’s attack was the second assassination attempt on Dostum since July 2018 when he escaped a suicide bomb attack at Kabul airport soon after landing in the country from more than a year in self-imposed exile in Turkey over allegations of torturing and abusing a political rival in his native Afghan province.

The Uzbek strongman is notorious in Afghanistan and was one of the warlords who helped the United States oust the Taliban from power in 2001.

Human rights groups have long accused Dostum of committing war crimes, including the deaths of hundreds of Taliban prisoners in the custody of his militia forces.

A political opponent, Ahmad Ishchi, alleged in 2016 that he had been tortured and raped by Dostum and his militiamen. Dostum was the acting president of Afghanistan at the time because President Ashraf Ghani was out of the country.

Soon after the government had launched an investigation into the assault against Ishchi, the former warlord fled the country and returned 15 months later after a deal with Ghani that ended weeks of crippling protests in northern Afghan provinces by Dostum’s supporters.</s>Taliban fighters on Saturday attacked a convoy carrying Afghanistan's vice president Abdul Rashid Dostum, in an assault that left the former warlord unscathed but killed one of his bodyguards, an official told AFP.

Enayatullah Babur, Dostum's former chief of staff, said the hour-long attack also left several others in the convoy wounded.

The attack occurred in the northern province of Balkh, where Dostum had held a rally earlier in the day.

On Twitter, a Taliban spokesman said the insurgent group had carried out the attack and claimed four of Dostum's bodyguards had been killed.

Dostum, a powerful ethnic Uzbek leader, is notorious in Afghanistan for extreme barbarities and for repeatedly switching loyalties over 40 years of conflict.

Despite a catalogue of war crimes attached to his name and accusations of organising the rape and torture of a political rival, Dostum became Afghanistan's first vice president in 2014.

At the rally in Balkh, Dostum had claimed he could clear northern Afghanistan of the Taliban within six months - if only the government would let him.

In delayed elections now slated for September, President Ashraf Ghani has chosen to run with Amrullah Saleh, an ethnic Tajik, instead of Dostum.

Dostum has survived several other attempts on his life, including one claimed by the Islamic State group last July in Kabul that killed 23 people including AFP driver Mohammad Akhtar.

Get the latest election news, live updates and election schedule for Lok Sabha Elections 2019 on ndtv.com/elections. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter and Instagram for updates from each of the 543 parliamentary seats for the 2019 Indian general elections.</s>Afghanistan's Vice President Abdul Rashid Dostum has escaped unhurt from a Taliban attack that killed one of his bodyguards, according to officials.

Attackers ambushed Dostum's convoy on Saturday on the way from Mazar-i-Sharif, a city in Balkh province, to Jawzjan province in northern Afghanistan, said Bashir Ahmad Tayenj, a spokesman for Dostum's Junbish Party.

Dostum was aware of a planned attack but decided to travel anyway, the spokesman added.

Two other of Dostum's bodyguards were wounded.

Dostum had held a rally in Balkh earlier in the day as he had joined the election team of Afghan Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah, one of several contenders in a presidential election scheduled for September 28.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the assassination attempt. In a tweet, Zabihullah Mujahid, the group's spokesman, said four guards were killed and six wounded in the attack.

The assault came eight months after Dostum avoided injury in a suicide bombing at Kabul airport that killed 23 people.

That attack, which was claimed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or ISIS), took place as Dostum returned home from more than a year in exile in Turkey over allegations of torturing and abusing a political rival.

Dostum had left Afghanistan after heavy pressure from Western donors, including the United States.

Less than a year since his return, he remains a significant, if polarising, political figure.

A powerful ethnic Uzbek leader, Dostum is notorious in Afghanistan for extreme barbarities and for repeatedly switching loyalties over 40 years of conflict.

Despite a catalogue of war crimes attached to his name and accusations of organising the rape and torture of a political rival, Dostum became Afghanistan's first vice president in 2014.

At the rally in Balkh, Dostum had claimed he could clear northern Afghanistan of the Taliban within six months - if only the government would let him.
First Vice President of Afghanistan Abdul Rashid Dostum survives an assassination attempt on his convoy while traveling to the Jowzjan Province in Afghanistan. The attack killed one bodyguard and injured two others.