Afghan minister 'assassinated'

Rahman, right, receives flowers during a visit to India in January.

KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- The leader of Afghanistan's interim government, Hamid Karzai, says the killing of Minister of Civil Aviation and Tourism Abdul Rahman was an assassination.

Rahman was killed Thursday at Kabul airport. Officials originally had said he was beaten to death by Hajj pilgrims frustrated at having to wait up to two days to get a plane to Mecca, Saudi Arabia.

At a news conference in the Afghan capital, Karzai said 20 suspects have been linked to the assassination.

"We had a very tragic incident yesterday in which Dr. Rahman, our minister of Civil Aviation and Tourism, was assassinated, martyred. God bless him," Karzai said.

Among the suspects are five senior military and defense officials in Karzai's government, including the head of the intelligence ministry, Gen. Abdullah Tawhedi, the technical deputy of the Ministry of Defense, Gen. Qalander Big, and a Supreme Court justice, Haji Halim.

All of the suspects have been fired and those in Afghanistan have been jailed, said Zalmay Khalilzad, President Bush's special envoy to Afghanistan, who spoke with Karzai on Friday.

Three suspects, all members of the Northern Alliance, fled to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, Khalilzad told PBS's The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer.

The suspects have long had a vendetta against Rahman, who had broken away from the Northern Alliance, Khalilzad said.

Karzai asked the Saudis for the immediate return of the three who fled to Saudi Arabia, and the Saudis agreed to hand them over, Khalilzad added.

Those arrested include high-ranking officials in the government: Gen. Abdul Rub, commander of the personal protection unit; Gen. Din Mohamad Jurat, a high-ranking official in the Ministry of Interior; and Maj. Faqir Mohamad, security commander of the airport where the killing took place.

Karzai said the killing was motivated by personal reasons and refused to term it a conspiracy, despite the implication of 20 people in his own government.

Four independent government sources said Rahman was stabbed with a large knife, and a hospital source said the minister received two deep chest wounds and a wound to the leg.