Death of a Strongman : The Kabul regime's challenges grow as a loyal friend and vice president is gunned down by assassins.(Abdul Qadir)(Brief Article)

Abdul Qadir's first day on the job should have been routine. The newly appointed minister of public works arrived at work early Saturday and spent most of his morning greeting well-wishers and scheduling appointments with his staff. About 12:40 p.m., Qadir, who also holds one of three vice-presidential posts in Afghanistan's Transitional Authority, went out for lunch. His black Land Cruiser barely made it out of the ministry gates before two gunmen jumped out of the bushes and peppered the car with 48 bullets, mortally wounding Qadir and the driver, his son-in- law Jafar. The assassins, decked out in white skullcaps and traditional shalwar kameez garments, jumped into a Toyota hatchback taxi with plates from Nangarhar, Qadir's home province.

The shooters escaped unidentified. And the list of suspects is large-- Qadir wasn't short of enemies. A famed mujahedin commander from the war against the Soviet Union, he controlled Nangarhar province and its capital, Jalalabad, as he would his own fiefdom. And the prolific opium trade in the province has long bred nasty characters and similarly nasty politics; just three months ago, Defense Minister Mohammad Fahim narrowly escaped a bomb attack in Jalalabad.

A little more than two weeks have passed since the Loya Jirga, or grand council, gave its blessing to a new Afghan government headed by Hamid Karzai. But Qadir's assassination, the second ministerial killing in less than six months, highlights the dangers and difficulties Karzai and his government face. And this latest incident will certainly cause Karzai to reflect on the effectiveness of his foreign military support--the ...