LONDON, April 20: British forces have received credible reports that assassins could be trying to kill Afghanistan’s former king who has returned home after 29 years in exile.

“There is a threat against the king,” British Royal Marines spokesman Lt-Col Paul Harradine told reporters at Bagram airbase, north of Kabul.

“They could pose as media to get close enough to him to do it.”

Following these reports, security around the former monarch has further been tightened. Mr Harradine could not tell who or which of the factions want to kill Zahir Shah. He just confined himself to saying that there were “many factions” that would like to kill Zahir Shah.

After arriving in Kabul on Thursday after 29 years of exile in Rome, Zahir Shah has been living in a villa in one of the posh areas of Kabul. He is surrounded by dozens of specially trained Afghan bodyguards, as well as international peacekeepers and Italian Carabineri paramilitary police. The former king has been receiving tribal delegates at his villa.