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- THE WEEK, Page 13WORLDNo Peace in Kabul
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- Rockets rain down on the capital, leaving thousands of casualties
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- There was a cool if utterly cruel political logic behind the
- massive rocket attacks launched on the Afghan capital of Kabul
- last week. The city has been left completely isolated, its
- transport and communications links cut; there is no power or
- water. Foreign embassies and U.N. personnel are seeking
- evacuation, while perhaps 100,000 more citizens have fled.
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- Behind the mayhem is rebel mujahedin leader Gulbuddin
- Hekmatyar, who apparently decided he could not afford to allow
- President Burhanuddin Rabbani's interim government to gain much
- stability. On Aug. 2, Pakistan's Prime Minister Mian Nawaz
- Sharif was due to arrive in Kabul, and Hekmatyar's rockets
- closed the airport. On Aug. 8, Rabbani was to fly to Tehran. The
- attacks intensified again. Since he was due in Pakistan last
- week for meetings with Pakistan's Nawaz Sharif, it was
- predictable that the rockets would come in more heavily than
- ever. Last week's barrage left 600 people dead and almost 2,000
- wounded. "Hekmatyar cannot get power, so he has become a
- complete spoiler," explains Islamabad columnist Mushahid
- Hussain. Unless the carnage stops, there may be few spoils left
- for the victor.
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