Taliban launch series of deadly attacks in runup to Afghanistan elections
|
Version 0 of 1. Taliban suicide attackers have left a trail of blood across Afghanistan , storming an election office in Kabul, shooting at a bank in the east and detonating a bomb at a sports event in the north. An unidentified gunman also killed a policewoman in Helmand. The violence came less than two weeks before presidential and provincial elections that insurgents have denounced as a sham and vowed to disrupt, warning anyone who votes or works on the polls that they will be considered a target. Spring is normally a bloody time in Afghanistan, as insurgent fighters start filtering back from winter safe havens across the porous border with Pakistan and Taliban commanders look for high-profile ways to start the "fighting season". But this year has been particularly vicious, with a string of attacks on civilian targets in recent days, mostly unconnected to the election, including a shooting that killed two children and seven other civilians in an upmarket Kabul hotel and a marketplace bomb in northern Faryab province. At least 12 people were killed in Tuesday's attacks, including a provincial election candidate and an election worker at the Kabul office, several police and security guards and six spectators at a game of buzkashi, a horseback competition. Dozens more were injured. The most high-profile assault was on the headquarters of the independent election commission in Kabul, a hub for training election officials, registering voters for last-minute identity cards and organising the credentials of candidates for the provincial council. Two suicide bombers detonated explosives at the gate, blasting an entrance for three gunmen who took more than 20 people hostage. Commando units battled for more than four hours to retake the complex, just a few hundred metres from the home of presidential candidate Ashraf Ghani. "It was just 11.30am I was sitting in my office when there was a big explosion at the first gate," said Ahmad Shoaib, an IEC employee who hid in his office during the attack. "They entered the yard and another one blew himself up at the entrance to the building. "I hid myself inside a cupboard otherwise they would kill me. I saw close to our office a body that you couldn't recognise. I couldn't tell if it was my colleague or someone else's." The attack was condemned by Afghan politicians and foreign diplomats. "Security remains a challenge to the goal of achieving an inclusive election," said Nicholas Haysom, acting head of the UN, calling on the police, army and election organisers to ensure voters feel safe on 5 April. "Afghans want to vote and to have the chance to forge their national destiny." The chief electoral officer for the poll said the attack would not hinder their work. "We are conducting elections in the middle of a war, but the important thing is the election commission is committed to conducting the elections," Zia-ul Haq Amerkhiel told the Associated Press. "We have a clear message to the Afghan people to participate in the upcoming elections and vote for [your] candidate of choice." The Taliban claimed responsiblity for the assault on the election office and three other attacks, although none of the other bloodshed was linked to the poll. The violence started with the assassination at about 6am of police officer Kandigul, shot down by an unknown attacker on the streets of her hometown, Gereshk, according to government spokesman Omari Zwak. She was the fourth policewoman killed in the province on her morning commute in the past year. Later in the morning at least two gunmen stormed a branch of New Kabul bank in eastern Kunar, where the Taliban said police were collecting their pay, killing five. Insurgents also attacked a border police outpost in Khost province, stronghold of the Haqqani network. Barely an hour after the Kabul attack finished with the death of the last of five suicide attackers, another suicide bomber blew himself up in Kunduz province. The attack killed six civilians and injured at least 20 others, said Sayed Sarwar Hussaini, spokesman for the provincial police chief. It was aimed at local militia commander, Mir Alam, who is also a campaigner for presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah, but he escaped unscathed. Further violence is expected in the runup to the poll, with police in the capital warning some shopping centres and restaurants to close or limit service. Elsewhere, extra police and soldiers have been deployed along key roads and in town centres. |