KABUL, 1 July 2004 — An Australian journalist, her fixer and a driver were reported missing in Afghanistan yesterday and one person was killed and 26 wounded in twin bomb blasts in the city of Jalalabad as pre-election violence escalated.

One Taleban spokesman said the guerrillas had captured a foreign woman and an Afghan man, but another spokesman for the insurgents said they were not holding Carmela Baranowska, a documentary maker with Australia’s SBS Television.

Separately, Taleban militants ambushed a convoy of trucks carrying food for US forces in the southern province of Kandahar on Tuesday and kidnapped 12 Afghan drivers and workers. A guerrilla spokesman later said the men would soon be released.

A day after NATO pledged more forces to fight growing violence ahead of September polls, the fresh wave of attacks and kidnappings underlined fears that reinforcements would be too little too late.

Fighters from the Taleban and Al-Qaeda have vowed to step up attacks on foreign forces, local troops and aid workers in a bid to disrupt an election billed as the country’s first free vote. Over 800 people have died in the violence since last August.

Yesterday, officials said Baranowska had gone missing in the south of the country where the Taleban have been active. “According to the report, this lady’s vehicle broke down between Girishk and Kandahar, but I don’t know whether she has been kidnapped or has left that area,” said Jalani Khan, head of security in the southern province of Zabul.

Girishk and Kandahar are in the provinces of Helmand and Kandahar. Zabul borders Kandahar province. Baranowska was traveling with her assistant Muhibullah, a Kandahari who has worked several times in the past for Time Magazine, and a driver named Hamidullah, also from Kandahar.

An employee of Kandahar’s Noorjahan Hotel said Baranowska checked out early on Monday morning, wearing a burqa commonly worn by women in Afghanistan.

Tim McGirk, Islamabad bureau chief for Time, said Muhibullah had told him he would check in regularly. But he said he had not heard from Muhibullah since an e-mail on Sunday evening and a spokeswoman for the Australian Foreign Ministry said it was seeking the whereabouts of Baranowska, who had not been in contact with her employer since Monday.

Also yesterday, one person was killed and 26 were wounded, eight of them seriously, in twin bomb blasts in the eastern city of Jalalabad. One of the explosions occurred in the Money Bazaar, a crowded commercial area of outdoor stalls in the city center, followed almost immediately by another about 200 meters away. At least three of those wounded were police officers and five were children.

“This is the work of terrorists,” said security official Abdul Rehman. However, a Taleban spokesman denied responsibility for the blasts, saying the group did not target civilians.