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CNN Saturday Morning News
Afghanistan's Vice President Gunned Down in Kabul
Aired July 06, 2002 - 08:02 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ROBIN MEADE, CNN ANCHOR: All right, right now we're going to turn our attention back to Afghanistan, where, as we told you at the top of the hour, that one of the nation's three vice presidents was gunned down today in Kabul.
For the latest, we're going to go right to CNN's John Raedler, who is joining us now from the scene, I believe, of where that happened -- John, what can you tell us about what you're seeing there?
JOHN RAEDLER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Robin, the assassination happened in the middle of the day Saturday in broad daylight outside the Ministry of Public Works. The vice president, Abdul Qadir, was both the vice president and the minister for public works. This was the vehicle he was in. He had a driver with him and that's all. He was sitting here, in the passenger's seat, a right hand drive vehicle.
On the windshield here we can see, I can count eight bullet holes. We believe they are the first bullets to have come from two assassins standing at a gate about 50 yards down from here when the vehicle came out through that gate -- bang, bang, bang, bang across the windshield.
Next bullet holes we see here in this wind guard. We see the front, the window here, passenger side window blown out completely. The passenger's seat, I can see here, one, two, three bullet holes in the top of the passenger's seat, both on the seat and on the driver's seat and on the floor, lots and lots of blood, understandably. A pair of prayer beads or a set of prayer beads on the little cushion between the driver's seat and the passenger's seat.
The driver and the passenger, Haji Qadir, we believe killed instantly. We believe they were shot up -- the vehicle was further shot here, you can see, in the back windows here and, again, the rear window heavily shot up, as well.
An AK-47 responsible and, in fact, Jeff, if you can bring that over, the camera over, CNN has found one of the shell casings from an AK-47 that was responsible that was just one of what appear to be probably a couple of dozen shots that riddled this vehicle, killing the two people in it, killing them instantly.
Both assassins, we believe, armed with AK-47s, a very common, widespread weapon here in Afghanistan. We are also told by the foreign ministry official who was here on the scene briefing us a little earlier that the two assassins were seen to jump into a Kabul taxi and the taxi sped off. It would be difficult to trace a taxi here because the city is just packed with them and they all look alike. They are all yellow and white.
At this stage, no claim of responsibility and at this stage the government says they don't know who did it, but they are terrorists -- Robin.
MEADE: John, before you leave, I want to add some new piece of information here from CNN that a spokeswoman for the U.S. State Department in Washington has said that the Department was mobilizing its South Asian bureau to assist in the investigation of this assassination.
Let me ask you, after saying that, what is the scene like there? Because apparently you can get close to the car and are there people standing around obviously aghast at what has happened?
RAEDLER: For a time after this happened, this particular scene, the crime scene, was cordoned off by about a dozen members of the international security assistance force. Some 17 countries contribute to that. These were German soldiers who were around it. But now they have gone. There are Afghan police, probably a dozen or so of them, in a broader perimeter. They have given us permission and their cooperation to come here to the vehicle to show you what happened, where it happened and the death scene, rather, of Haji Qadir -- Robin.
MEADE: All right, John Raedler, thank you for that information, too, and a look at the area of where that happened. Take care.
All right, also in Afghanistan today, U.S. officials plan to investigate why and how an American gunship killed 48 Afghan civilians who were apparently part of a wedding party. Well, officials say the AC-130 gunship attacked after getting hostile fire from the ground.
Well, now U.S. investigators want to know if that fire came from the Afghan group firing rifles to celebrate a wedding. Well, the incident happened in an area where U.S. forces are focused on al Qaeda and Taliban targets.
President Bush Friday called Afghan's president to express his condolences.
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