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Karzai blames foreigners for unrest

Two officials sacked for spying for other countries, says Afghan President

Afghanistan: Afghan President Hamid Karzai said on Sunday two high-ranking government officials had been fired after they were caught spying, as he blamed unnamed foreign powers for decades of fighting in his country.

Mr. Karzai told members of Afghanistan's new Parliament that some Afghans had become tools in the hands of foreigners to perpetuate unrest to make money.

He did not name any country. But he told lawmakers that two senior government officials had been fired because they allegedly spied for other countries.

He did not name them, and it wasn't clear when they were dismissed or if any action was taken against them.

``In the last decades, there was no ethnic fighting in Afghanistan and there was no religious fighting in Afghanistan, but it was the interference of other countries and interference of foreigners in our country,'' Mr. Karzai told the gathering of more than 400 lawmakers — men and women — from the Lower and upper Houses of Parliament.

``Of course, we understand, that some of the Afghans were involved in this fighting and they received money from the foreigners and they worked to the benefits of the foreigners,'' he told the luncheon at the heavily guarded presidential palace in Kabul.

Afghanistan's first popularly elected Parliament in three decades convened last week, three months after legislative elections.

The country had no elected National Assembly since 1973, after which coups and a Soviet invasion plunged the country into decades of chaos that killed more than 1 million people.

That period was followed by the rule of the extremist Taliban militia, which is blamed for a steady stream of violence, mainly in the south, as part of its opposition to the U.S. and Mr. Karzai's rule. Police said they arrested three Taliban fighters, including one who was allegedly planning a suicide attack in Kandahar. — AP

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