KABUL, 11 May 2007 — Afghanistan’s Parliament voted yesterday to sack the refugees minister amid an uproar over Iran’s forced return of thousands of illegal refugees, while the fate of the foreign minister is in the balance.

Refugees Affairs Minister Akbar Akbar lost a no-confidence vote by a large majority, while the vote for Foreign Minister Rangeen Dadfar Spanta was hanging on a single spoiled ballot.

Parliament said it would decide how to handle Spanta’s vote when it reconvenes tomorrow.

Akbar has effectively lost his job but President Hamid Karzai could decide to keep him on as acting minister until his replacement is approved by Parliament, MP Shukria Barakzai said.

Parliamentarians accused him of not doing enough to accommodate the thousands of refugees who have flooded into western Afghanistan after Iran said it wanted one million illegal Afghans out of its country by March 2008.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) says more than 52,000 were forced out between April 21 and May 8.

Spanta was accused of not doing enough to persuade Iran to ease its policy of forced repatriation.

At one stage eight million Afghans were living outside the country, giving it the world’s largest refugee population. Millions have returned home since the Taleban government was toppled in 2001. Besides the one million illegal Afghans, Iran is home to 920,000 registered Afghan refugees.

Pakistan has at least two million registered Afghan refugees, which it is also trying to expel.

Spanta told the Parliament Iran was piling on the pressure because of various issues including a dispute over water, with dam projects in this country likely to affect its supply. “We are under direct pressure for signing a direct security partnership (with the United States and NATO),” he added. The US and NATO lead military forces helping the Afghan government fight the Taleban.

There have been suggestions from officials in the United States and Britain that Iran is helping the Taleban insurgents by supplying them with weapons, a claim strongly denied by Tehran.

Spanta said he had spoken to his counterparts in Iran about the claims, which they rejected.

40 Civilians Killed in US Raid

At least 40 civilians were killed in an air strike in Afghanistan by foreign forces, witnesses said yesterday, but the US-led coalition said only rebels were hit and it knew of no other casualties.

The deaths on Tuesday in the southern province of Helmand, if confirmed, would raise the civilian toll at the hands of foreign troops to 110 in the past two weeks. “Foreign troops are killing Afghans every day, but our government has closed its eyes and does not see our casualties,” local resident Haji Ibrahim said.

Helmand Gov. Assadullah Wafa said earlier 21 civilians, including women and children, were killed in Tuesday’s air strike in Sangin district — the scene of a large anti-Taleban operation by foreign troops.

The US-led coalition said its troops and Afghan soldiers on patrol in the area had come under fire on Tuesday and there were no reported injuries to any civilians.

“During the 16-hour battle, Afghan National Army and coalition forces fought through three separate enemy ambush sites while dozens of Taleban fighters ... reinforced enemy positions,” the coalition said. It estimated 200 Taleban fighters were involved in the clash, in which one coalition soldier died, and said the air strikes destroyed three rebel compounds and an underground tunnel network.