ISLAMIC STATE BLAST TARGETS AFGHAN VP, AT LEAST 14 KILLED

Afghanistan’s first vice president, a former Uzbek warlord, escaped unharmed from an explosion near the airport as he returned home on Sunday after living in Turkey for over a year, according to security officials.

A spokesman for the interior ministry, said a suicide bomber carried out the attack near Kabul International Airport shortly after Abdul Rashid Dostum’s convoy had left the airport.

Dostum and his entourage were unharmed. The spokesman said 14 people, including both civilians and military forces, were killed in the attack and 60 others wounded.

The Islamic State’s local affiliate claimed responsibility on its Amaq News Agency website.

Dostum left Afghanistan in 2017 after the attorney-general’s office launched an investigation into allegations that his followers tortured and sexually abused a former ally turned political rival.

He denied the accusations but, amid international demands that he face justice, he left the country, ostensibly to seek medical treatment in Turkey.

Even in exile, he remained a powerful figure with wide support among his fellow ethnic Uzbeks in northern Afghanistan. While in Turkey, he also formed an alliance Atta Mohammad Noor, a major force among ethnic Tajiks and Mohammad Mohaqiq, a leader of the Hazara minority.

President Ashraf Ghani now faces the challenge of reintegrating Dostum, an ally in the disputed 2014 election who helped deliver the ethnic Uzbek vote but is a volatile and unpredictable partner.