HEADLIGHTS: Though a Pashtun, Qadir Was Member of the Tajik-Led Northern Alliance||He Was Brother to Abdul-Heq, Captured & Hanged By Taliban||Police Arrests 10 guards, Appointed by Qadir's Predecessor at the public works ministry, Abdul Khaliq Fazal|| STORY: Haji Abdul Qadir, one of Afghanistan's three vice presidents, was assassinated outside his office in the center of Kabul on Saturday, Interior Minister Taj Mohammad Wardak said. Qadir, a Pashtun from the Northern Alliance who was also public works minister and governor of Jalalabad, was shot by two gunmen as he drove into his office compound, Kabul police chief Basir Salangi told reporters. (Read photo caption)

Some 36 rounds were fired, smashing the car windshield and riddling the side with holes.

Salangi said 10 guards, who had been appointed by Qadir's predecessor at the public works ministry, Abdul Khaliq Fazal, had been arrested.

Officers from the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), in Kabul to help keep the peace, said they were investigating.

Qadir comes from Afghanistan's biggest ethnic group, the Pashtuns, but he was also a member of the Tajik-dominated Northern Alliance which swept into Kabul late last year to oust their longtime foes, the Taliban, with U.S. support.

Last month a Loya Jirga, or Grand Assembly, of Afghan leaders approved a new cabinet to lead the country for the next 18 months under President Hamid Karzai, a Pashtun, in the hope of bringing peace and stability after 23 years of war.

The assembly faced the tough task of finding a government acceptable to the Pashtun majority, the Northern Alliance which had a strong hand on the ground, and the various warlords who dominate swathes of the country.

PHOTO CAPTION

Afghan Vice President Haji Abdul Qadir attends UN talks on Afghanistan in Koenigswinter near Bonn in this November 27, 2001 file photo. Qadir was assassinated outside his office in the center of Kabul on July 6, 2002, Interior Minister Taj Mohammad Wardak said. Qadir, a Pashtun from the Northern Alliance and also public works minister, was shot at by two gunmen as he drove into his office compound, Kabul police chief Basir Salangi told reporters. (Wolfgang Rattay/Re