During celebrations in Mazar-I-Sharif marking the Afghan New Year, Vice President Mohammad Qasim Fahim, who fought the Soviets and commanded forces that overthrow the Taliban in , said a "peace jirga" planned for late April or early May would try to chart a way to reconcile with government opponents. My dear countrymen, my hope is that this year will be the year of peaceful stability. Fahim, who has been critical in the past of any deals with the Taliban, is an ethnic Tajik and former defense minister, while Karzai and the Taliban leadership are ethnic Pashtuns.
The jirga, an Afghan institution where community leaders meet to take decisions by consensus, is expected to formulate a national strategy for reconciliation talks with the Taliban and their allies.
Talking with the Taliban is gaining support in Afghanistan as thousands of U. That has prompted Pakistan, Iran and others to stake out positions on possible reconciliation negotiations that could mean an endgame to the war. Eide criticized Pakistan for arresting the Taliban's No. Pakistan denies the arrests were linked to reconciliation talks. Talk of reconciliation, however, has done little to slow the violence, which has escalated dramatically over the past three years.
Provincial spokesman Dawood Ahmadi said all the victims were civilians, most of them vendors selling goods along the highway. Helmand is the scene of some of the bloodiest fighting in recent months. Elsewhere, two other civilians died and four were wounded when a roadside bomb exploded near a crowd of New Year's celebrants in Khost province near the border with Pakistan. Khost police Chief Yaqoub Khan was about 40 yards away from the blast but was not injured.
He said Afghan and U. Nangarhar police spokesman Ghafour Khan said the bombs were designed "to create fear among the people" during New Year's celebrations. During the New Year's celebrations in Mazar-i-Sharif, 90 miles kilometers northwest of Kabul, a large crowd cheered as clerics raised a colorful banner at the shrine of Imam Ali, the nephew and son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad.
