Kabul
Afghan President Hamid Karzai this week confirmed that he would run in the October presidential election—but without his powerful defense minister as a running mate. Defense Minister Mohammed Qassim Fahim, a prominent Northern Alliance warlord, was widely expected to be one of the two vice presidential candidates on Karzai’s ticket. But Karzai has grown increasingly critical of the warlords and their private militias, recently calling them “the biggest threat” to Afghanistan’s security. Fahim commands around 50,000 fighters and has been reluctant to disarm them. In his place, Karzai picked Ahmed Zia Masoud, currently the Afghan ambassador to Russia. He is the younger brother of Ahmed Shah Masoud, the warlord who was assassinated by al Qaida just before the 9/11 attacks.
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