GHAZNI, Afghanistan, 6 October 2004 — Wartime security was rolled out for Afghanistan’s interim President Hamid Karzai as he addressed his first election campaign rally outside the capital yesterday amid spiraling violence.

A fleet of helicopters escorted by fighter jets flew Karzai to an enthusiastic welcome from some 10,000 people in Ghazni, about 100 kilometers south of the capital, as the country counted down to Saturday’s historic presidential elections.

Karzai’s first attempt to campaign beyond the capital was aborted after a rocket attack on his helicopter last month, and security was tight for the US-backed candidate in Ghazni, with American bodyguards beefed up by truckloads of soldiers on the streets.

Shortly after he spoke, reports came in of several incidents of violence in southern Afghanistan, where remnants of the hard-line Taleban regime ousted in the 2001 US-led invasion have vowed to disrupt the vote.

Seven Afghan policemen were killed when their vehicle was blown up by a remote-controlled mine in the Maruf district of Kandahar province yesterday, provincial police chief Khan Mohammad told AFP.

Two suspected Taleban militants were killed by their own bomb while trying to plant it near the house of a top police officer, he said.

In southeastern Afghanistan, three Afghan electoral workers were injured in an attack by suspected Taleban in the province of Khost, an official said.

In the capital Kabul, a powerful bomb was discovered and defused near a military camp in the early hours of yesterday, a spokesman for the NATO-led peacekeeping force said.

In central Uruzgan province, Afghan security forces killed seven suspected Taleban during a two-hour gunbattle after they ambushed a battalion of government troops east of the provincial capital Tirin Kot.

In Ghazni, the crowd, carrying posters with Karzai’s picture and banners reading “Karzai is the symbol of unity”, chanted Allahu Akbar (God is great) and “Long live Karzai”, against a background of traditional drumming.

Karzai told the crowd: “When I see this number of people, in their thousands, I’m delighted and I’m sure that I will win.”

Karzai said he was happy to see pictures of other candidates as well as his own while on the way to the meeting, adding: “I urge you, whoever among the candidates gets elected you should support him.”