Reuters reports that the Afghan Civil Aviation Minister Mirwais Sadiq was killed in the western Ahghan city of Herat on Sunday, provoking tank battles in which more than 100 people died.
Herat's provincial governor, Ismail Khan, is the father of the slain cabinet minister.
According to Reuters an intense struggle for control of Herat was underway between Khan's forces and those of the central government in several areas of the city:
Ismail Khan, an Islamic hard-liner, has been at odds with Karzai's U.S.-backed government for failing to hand over tens of millions of dollars of customs revenues from Herat, which controls the bulk of Afghanistan's trade.A veteran of the struggle against Soviet rule in the 1980s, Khan professes loyalty to Karzai but is often accused of running a personal fiefdom in the west.
Karzai chaired an emergency National Security Council meeting and a presidential spokesman said government troops would be sent to restore order.
Being Afghanistan's Civil Aviation Minister isn't good for one's healt. In February 2002, Sadiq's predecessor as Civil Aviation Minister, Abdul Rahman, was assassinated at Kabul airport.
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