Mohammed Fahim

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Mohammed Fahim

Marshal Mohammad Qasim Fahim (محمد قسيم فهيم) (born 1957) is a prominent Afghani Military Commander and Politician. He was the defense minister of the Afghan Transitional Administration, beginning in 2002 and also served as vice president. Later Fahim was removed as defense minister by President Hamid Karzai on December 23, 2004, as the transitional administration gave way to a popularly-elected administration.

During the Soviet war in Afghanistan, Fahim joined the Afghan mujahideen led by Ahmad Shah Masood and rose through the ranks, becoming one of Masood's principle military deputies and head of intelligence. On September 13, 2001, Fahim was confirmed as the defence minister of the Northern Alliance, succeeding Ahmad Shah Masood. Masood had been assassinated four days earlier by al-Qaeda operatives posing as journalists. By September 22, Fahim was in Tajikistan holding talks with Russian army chief Anatoly Kvashnin. As defence minister, Fahim was the effective leader of the Northern Alliance, along with his supporters Yunus Qanuni and Dr Abdullah. In the transitional administration, many commentators considered him to be more powerful than the President, Hamid Karzai.

As defense minister he toured army bases in the United Kingdom, negotiated security issues with U.S. General Tommy Franks and Canadian Defense Minister John McCallum, NATO Secretary General George Robertson, visited Moscow and Washington, DC. He also replaced 15 ethnic Tajik generals with officers from the Pashtun, Uzbek and Hazara ethnic groups.

While holding the position, he continued to command his own militia. However, on December 10, 2003, he ordered part of his militia to transport their weapons (including 11 tanks, 10 rocket-launchers and two scud missiles) to an Afghan National Army installation near Kabul.

In June of 2003, a bomb was found in front of his home. Later in the year, the head of his personal security died at the hands of a suicide bomber.

On September 12, 2003, Miloon Kothari, appointed by the United Nations Commission on Human Rights to investigate housing rights in Afghanistan, announced that many of the government ministers including Fahim and Education Minister Yunus Qanuni were illegally occupying land and should be removed from their posts. However, three days later, Kothari sent a letter to Lakhdar Brahimi, the head of the U.N. in Afghanistan, saying he had gone too far in naming the ministers.

Mohammed Fahim was not chosen by Karzai's to be one of his Vice Presidents; subsequently he backed the candidacy of his fellow Tajik, Yunus Qunani. After Karzai's victory in the presidential elections, he was not reappointed defence minister. However in a decree made in December 2004, Karzai confirmed that Fahim would hold the rank of Marshal, Afghanistan's highest, for life, with all rights and privileges. In 2006, Karzai, faced with a resurgent Taliban, returned Fahim to Government as an advisor.