Karzai acts to squelch pro-Taliban insurgency

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.iht.com/articles/106418.html

KABUL The Afghan government accelerated a sweeping purge of government officials Thursday, firing three governors and six security chiefs in provinces hardest hit by an intensifying pro-Taliban insurgency.

The action came after more than 50 people died in clashes and a bomb attack Wednesday that marked the highest one-day death toll in Afghanistan in nearly a year.

In a presidential decree, Hamid Karzai dismissed the governors of Kandahar, Zabul and Wardak provinces in southern and eastern Afghanistan and replaced them with central government loyalists seen as more effective managers, Afghan officials said.

In a separate move, he stripped the country's most powerful warlord, Ismail Khan, of his military post in western Afghanistan but allowed him to remain governor of Herat Province.

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