7 Afghan Opposition Leaders Reportedly Die in Crash

KABUL, Afghanistan — A plane carrying leaders of the alliance fighting Afghanistan’s Taliban Islamic army crashed Thursday, killing everyone on board, a spokesman for the opposition said.

The coalition’s new prime minister was among seven top officials aboard the transport plane that crashed at an airfield in Bamian, about 80 miles northwest of Kabul, the capital.

“It was a short runway and the plane skidded off the end. All the people on board were killed on the spot,” said the spokesman, Abdullah, who like many Afghans uses only one name.

Neither of the opposition’s most prominent figures--ousted military chief Ahmed Shah Masoud and warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum--were on board. The total number of victims was unclear. There was no immediate suggestion of sabotage.

The premier, Abdur Rahim Ghafourzai, was appointed this month by leaders of the anti-Taliban coalition that controls northern Afghanistan.

The coalition is a tenuous alliance led by Masoud and northern warlords. It has been fighting the Taliban religious army, which captured Kabul in September as part of its campaign to impose a strict Islamic regime on all of Afghanistan.

The opposition set up its parallel administration to challenge the Taliban. The country has divided largely along ethnic lines since the Taliban emerged about three years ago.