US Fingers Senior Afghan in Troop Deaths

...but Karzai won't prosecute, says the case is closed
By Mark Russell,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 30, 2012 11:27 AM CDT
US Fingers Senior Afghan in Troop Deaths
Afghan women clad in burqas walk near the scene of a suicide attack in Kapisa northeast of Kabul, Afghanistan Wednesday, June 15, 2011.   (AP Photo/Musadeq Sadeq)

Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai is refusing to prosecute a former Afghan provincial governor for his alleged role in the killing of a US lieutenant colonel and a servicewoman, in addition to other crimes, reports the Wall Street Journal. US officials are accusing Ghulam Qawis Abu Bakr of corruption and ordering a suicide bombing in May 2009 that killed the two Americans. But Karzai says there is not enough evidence to prosecute Abu Bakr and he considers the matter closed.

"As far as we are concerned, the case is still open," said a senior US official. Abu Bakr was governor of Kapisa province, north of Kabul, from 2007 to 2010, and to this day is an important powerbroker there. A US report also alleges Abu Bakr conspired to kill ambassadors from France, Britain, and the United States, and was tangled up in extortion and other acts of corruption. (More Hamid Karzai stories.)

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