From: Abe Rein (ARein@sorosny.org)
Date: Wed Apr 02 2003 - 14:53:22 EST
ISAF AND AFGHAN OFFICIALS SEE NO LINK BETWEEN ATTACKS IN AFGHANISTAN AND
WAR IN IRAQ...
Mark Whitty, a spokesman for the ISAF, told RFE/RL on 1 April that no
one has claimed responsibility for the 30 March rocket attack on the
ISAF's headquarters in Kabul (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 31 March 2003).
Another spokesman for the ISAF, Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Loebbering of
Germany, said the international forces "do not expect any general
deterioration" of the security situation in Kabul as a result of the war
in Iraq. However, he added that the ISAF has "been prepared for such
attacks and we even expected them." Sayyed Fazl Akbar, a spokesman for
the Afghan Transitional Administration, echoed Loebbering's views,
saying that elements who are opposed to peace and security in
Afghanistan "have always wanted to destabilize the country, and their
aims have nothing to do with the Iraqi case." Akbar said Afghanistan
does not expect the United States to decrease its engagement with
Afghanistan, adding to do so would mean that "attacks like the one on 11
September [2001] might be repeated." AT
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