KABUL, 30 September 2004 — US forces in Afghanistan vowed yesterday to bolster security in the volatile south and southeast ahead of a landmark election, as Taleban fighters bent on disrupting the poll launched a fresh wave of attacks.
With 11 days to go before millions of Afghans vote in the country’s first direct presidential ballot, security remains the main concern, prompting most of the 18 candidates to call for the election to be postponed.
Remnants of the ousted Taleban want to disrupt the voting, which they dismiss as a “sham” orchestrated by the United States and the US-backed government in Kabul. Over 1,000 people have died in militant-related attacks since August last year.
“The international community must stand firm against a small minority of terrorists who oppose stability and democracy and are trying to deny the Afghan people the right to choose the president,” said US military spokesman Maj. Scott Nelson.
“We are planning to step up our efforts even further in the coming weeks,” he told a regular news briefing in Kabul.
According to Nelson, soldiers from the 18,000-strong US-led force in Afghanistan would not be deployed to the 25,000 polling stations around the country on Oct. 9, but would provide emergency backup wherever violence may flare up.
In a huge operation involving tens of thousands of local and foreign security personnel, police will patrol polling booths while troops from the fledgling Afghan National Army will throw a security ring around the sites to prevent militant attacks.
Afghan and US officials are particularly concerned about the south and southeast of the country, and aid groups have been highly critical of the US military and NATO for not doing enough to stabilize the regions before holding the election.
There are around 8,000 NATO-led peacekeepers based mainly in Kabul. “In Zabul province, Uruzgan, places in the south and southeast where we’ve had problems in the past, are areas where we’ll certainly focus on enhanced security,” Nelson said.
Suspected Taleban fighters ambushed a remote district headquarters in the southern province of Zabul early yesterday, killing three Afghans soldiers and wounding three more, said senior local police official Jailani Khan. Four militants also died in the gun battle that raged for several hours in the Khake Afghan district.
Taleban fighters attacked a convoy of US coalition and Afghan forces in Dai Chopan district of Zabul, and at noon (0730 GMT) a US military vehicle was hit by a remote-controlled explosive device, said Taleban spokesman Latif Hakimi.
Khan confirmed there had been two attacks, but he could not confirm Hakimi’s account of a total of 11 dead or wounded. The US military was not immediately available for comment.
