
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, March 6, 1990                   TAG: 9003062197
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A/2   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN                                 LENGTH: Medium

AFGHAN COUP TRY CRUSHED

The Afghan defense minister attempted to overthrow the Kremlin-backed government in Kabul today but failed, Kabul radio said. Pakistan-based guerrillas and Western diplomats said they had reports of widespread fighting in Kabul.

In Moscow, official Soviet sources said the palace of President Najib was bombed by unidentified planes, and that there was fighting around the Defense Ministry.

Official Kabul radio, monitored in Islamabad, said Defense Minister Shah Nawaz Tanai led the attempted coup. Although the attempt was crushed, the radio said, Tanai escaped and security forces were searching for him and his backers.

It appealed to Afghans to join the military and help capture Tanai "dead or alive."

Najib has been president of Afghanistan since 1986. He has made various offers to the guerrillas, known as mujahedeen or Islamic holy warriors, to try to end the civil war that started when his Marxist party seized power in a 1978 coup.

Tanai is considered a party hardliner who opposes the peace overtures. He was implicated in a December coup attempt but never charged.

Guerrilla sources based in Pakistan said they had reports from their commanders of widespread fighting in Kabul.

"If Kabul radio says it [the coup] has been crushed, it doesn't mean it has," said a source from one of the seven guerrilla groups based here.

The Soviet news agency Tass, quoting eyewitnesses, said "unidentified planes bombed the presidential palace," and that anti-aircraft guns returned fire. Shooting also was heard in the vicinity of the airport and near the Defense Ministry, Tass said.

Soviet Foreign Ministry spokesman Gennady Gerasimov told reporters earlier in a news briefing that a coup attempt possibly was under way.

"There is fighting at the airport. The situation is unclear, it may be a coup attempt," he said. "We must wait for information . . . "

He said it was too early to say what action the Soviet Union would take in the event Najib was overthrown.

Radio Kabul said Aslam Watanjar, the country's interior minister, will replace Tanai.

Tanai has been involved in at least three of five known coup attempts since Najib became president in December 1986, Afghan sources in New Delhi said.

by CNB