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Kabul Rally Chants 'Death to Trump' for His Anti-Afghan Remarks

Ayaz Gul

   ISLAMABAD -- A key presidential candidate in Afghanistan urged
   President Donald Trump on Friday to test the U.S. military power
   against Russia instead of threatening the "oppressed" Afghans.
   Politicians and the public in the war-ravaged country continue to
   express their anger at Trump for claiming his military plan, if
   executed, could win the Afghan war within 10 days, killing 10 million
   people and wiping Afghanistan "off the face of the Earth."
   Gulbuddin Hekmatyar,a presidential hopeful and former anti-American
   warlord,denounced Trump's assertionswhileaddressing thousands of his
   supporters in Kabul. The crowd of fewer than 10,000 chanted "Death to
   America, Death to Trump" during the speech.
   "We ask Mr. Trump that if you have the courage and strength, and you
   believe in your military power, then test it against [Russian President
   Vladimir] Putin, and not the oppressed Afghans," Hekmatyar said.
   "The same Putin who is said to have meddled in America's election,
   enabling you [Trump] to reach the White House to become the president,"
   Hekmatyar went on to mock Trump.

   Ghani government criticized
   He also criticized President Ashraf Ghani's coalition government for
   seeking "clarification" from Washington rather than denouncing Trump's
   remarks. Hekmatyar and his fighters fought alongside the Taliban
   against U.S. and NATO forces until two years ago, when heentered intoa
   peace-and-reconciliation deal with the U.S.-backed government in Kabul.
   Trump, while speaking Monday to reporters at the White House together
   with Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, explained why he needed
   Islamabad's help "to extricate ourselves" from Afghanistan.
   "I have plans on Afghanistan that, if I wanted to win that war,
   Afghanistan would be wiped off the face of the Earth. It would be gone.
   It would be over in, literally, in 10 days. And I don't want to do -- I
   don't want to go that route," Trump remarked.

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