Afghan Vice President Confirmed Survivors of Taliban Attack

Jakarta, CNN Indonesia - Deputy President of Afghanistan, Abdul Rashid Dastum is confirmed to have survived after the attack by the Taliban group on Saturday (3/30). Previously known, Taliban groups attacked a convoy carrying Dostum and killed a number of government guards.

Enayatullah Babur, former head of Dostum's staff, said the attack was carried out for a full hour, causing several others to be injured. The attack took place in the northern province of Balkh, when Dostum held a rally the previous day.

Through a Twitter account, a Taliban spokesman said his group had carried out the attack and claimed four of Dostum's guards had been killed.


Dostum, a strong ethnic Uzbek leader, is famous in Afghanistan because of his extreme influence. He claimed to have repeatedly thwarted treason for 40 years the country was plagued by conflict.

Despite the impression of war crimes attached to his name and accusations of organizing rape and torture against political rivals, Dostum became Afghanistan's first vice president in 2014. Dostum claimed he could clear northern Afghanistan from the Taliban within six months.

Dostum has survived several other assassination attempts during his career. Including, an attack claimed by ISIS in July last year in Kabul. In that event, 23 people, including the driver of the AFP news agency Mohammad Akhtar, were killed.

Meanwhile, the Taliban continued to carry out attacks after attacks. The group also reportedly carried out an attack on a checkpoint on Saturday (30/3). The attack then proceeded to the city of Ghazni, East Afghanistan.

Ghazni police spokesman Ahmad Khan Seerat told AFP the commotion began on Friday morning. Suddenly, the Taliban launched an attack on two adjacent checkpoints. The Taliban were called to ambush a group of police who were rushing to the scene, killing a police chief.

The attack came as the United States was trying to mediate a peace agreement with the Taliban and the Kabul government, more than 17 years since the US invasion aimed at overthrowing Islamic fighters.

In January, President Ashraf Ghani revealed that as many as 45 thousand security personnel had been killed since he took office in September 2014.

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