Spiegel report a libel on Noor: aide

MAZAR-I-SHARIF/KABUL/US targeted killings”, his spokesman on Wednesday said the magazine had published a baseless stuff.

Speaking to Pajhwok Afghan News, Munir Farhad called the report as “far from reality and a calumny campaign against the governor.”

The Spiegel report said apart from Taliban’s echelons, some Afghan drug smugglers were also placed on the kill list for allegedly financing the insurgency.

Noor, a powerful figure in the north, had become wealthy through smuggling in the turmoil of war, the magazine said, adding that he was seen as someone who ruthlessly eliminated his enemies.

Farhad said Noor was a highly respected person and people like him could not even think of harming his country. “The Spiegel report was an effort at libeling respected personalities and Afghan political leaders,” he added.

Reacting to smuggling allegations against Noor, Farhad said seven years ago when poppy cultivation was rampant across the country, Noor had brought the illicit plant sowing to zero in Balkh.

About Noor’s alleged involvement in the killing of Gen. Daud Daud, a former deputy interior minister, Farhad said the governor was very close to him and it was one of the saddest moments for him when the general was killed in a suicide attack in northern Takhar province in 2011.

In its detailed article, the Spiegel said that in the list of “Targeted Killings” in Afghanistan included up to 750 people at times.

Noor was listed as number 1,722 on the NATO list and given a priority level of three, but NATO merely collected information about Noor, rather than placing him on the kill list.

hg/rm/ma