After being forced for the past several months to park his government issued Toyota 4-Runner on a side street near the Ministry of State, Hamid Karzai regained control over his reserved space in the ministry's parking area following a U.S. backed raid earlier today.The assault was headed by U.S. special forces and included members of Karzai's DynCorp security detail as well as elements loyal to Abdul Rashid Dostum. No injuries were reported among the U.S. or DynCorp personnel. However, several of Dotsum's Uzbek speaking troops were killed when an errant 500 pound bomb was misdirected onto their position by DynCorp employees acting as forward air-controllers.
The target of the operation was a 1981 Toyota 4x4 pickup, that U.S. intelligence sources indicate was parked by "latent Taliban or possibly Al Qaeda forces." However, local residents who witnessed the assault describe the owner as "a guy who works down the street."
In either case, the owner was not present at the time of the assault, and despite the rather impressive display of fire power unleashed by the coalition, the truck in fact proved to be undefended.
Although a sign affixed to the wall above the parking space asserts in three languages that "Violators Will Be Towed At Owner's Expense" U.S. military sources have indicated that it is unlikely that they will be able to recoup the cost of the operation from the owner of the pickup.
