Karzai insists on Afghan unity

KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Afghanistan's interim leader Hamid Karzai has emphasized the unity of his administration in the aftermath of a minister's assassination.

Several high-ranking government officials have been arrested in connection with the killing of aviation and tourism minister Abdul Rahman.

Speaking at a ceremony to sign the first monetary checks for Afghanistan's reconstruction efforts, Karzai answered several questions relating to the country's security.

Karzai commended the actions of the defense and interior ministers, who told Karzai Friday the names of the men responsible for Rahman's killing.

Rahman was killed Thursday at Kabul's 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.

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But after speaking to his cabinet Karzai called the killing an assassination.

Karzai said: The cabinet decided that (the suspects) will be announced, that they would be arrested and they would be brought to justice. The cabinet is fully, fully united."

Among the suspects are five senior military and defense officials, including the head of the intelligence ministry, General 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. Two other men are being hunted in connection with Rahman's death, Karzai said.

Three "senior people," who are suspects, will arrive in Afghanistan Sunday afternoon from Saudi Arabia after authorities there arrested them, Karzai said. They fled to Mecca, Saudi Arabia after the incident.

The suspects have long had a vendetta against Rahman, who had broken away from the Northern Alliance, according to Zalmay Khalilzad, President Bush's special envoy to Afghanistan.

Karzai said the cabinet's actions to arrest the men were based on intelligence reports and eyewitness accounts that the suspects boarded Rahman's plane and killed him.

"There is no doubt about what happened and that's why we made that strict, strong decision to announce and arrest them," Karzai said.

He assured everyone at Sunday's news conference that the suspects "will be dealt with very, very sternly," in accordance with the country's 1964 constitution.

"There will not be any lenient hand there," Karzai said, noting that he would use all means possible to protect Afghanistan's security.

"If I see that Afghanistan is not allowed to live peacefully, I will ask for changing of the mandate of the ISAF (International Security Assistance Force). I will ask for every measure to bring security to the Afghan people. I will use international force, I will use Afghan force to make life good for these people."

The interim leader said "the circumstances are not yet clear" regarding a shooting early Saturday in Kabul, in which two British paratroopers killed an Afghan man after reporting they were fired upon.

ISAF said six British paratroopers came under fire for the first time in the Afghan capital, when an unidentified gunman in a car sped past a British security post and began shooting.

However, one of the men in the convoy said the group was trying to take a pregnant woman to a hospital, when they were fired on without provocation.