Kabul, June 15: US Defence Secretary Robert Gates on Monday played down the resignations of Afghanistan’s interior minister and spy chief, saying he did not believe it was linked to disputes over how to reconcile with the Taliban.
Gates avoided criticising President Hamid Karzai over the removal of the officials — who were favourites of the US administration — calling it an “internal matter for the Afghans.”
Speaking to reporters on his aircraft en route to London from Baku, Gates said the departure of the officials did not appear linked to Karzai’s efforts to broker peace with the Taliban, including new plans to review the cases of Taliban-linked prisoners and other militants.
“I haven’t seen anything to suggest that had anything to do with this, these changes,” said Gates, referring to Karzai’s plan to possibly free some inmates.
Interior Minister Hanif Atmar and the chief of the National Directorate of Security, Amrullah Saleh, were highly valued by the US administration and Nato governments, particularly Atmar’s efforts to improve the police force.
However, the country’s finance minister confirmed on Monday that the resignations were connected to rocket attacks on a “peace jirga” in Kabul last week.
“There was a serious security incident in the peace jirga for which their agencies had the prime responsibility,” Omar Zakhilwal said at a press conference in the Spanish capital.
Meanwhile, at least three suicide bombers attacked a police training centre on Monday in southern Afghanistan’s largest city, but the assailants were killed before they could inflict any casualties, officials said.
One of the attackers drove an explosives-laden car up to the gate of the center and detonated the bomb, blowing a hole in the compound wall, the Interior Ministry said. Two other bombers tried to storm through the hole, engaging in a gunbattle with police.
Separately, three Nato soldiers, including at least one American, were killed Monday in separate shooting and bomb attacks, the military said.
–Agencies