KABUL, 24 October 2004 — The Taleban claimed responsibility for yesterday’s suicide bomb attack in Kabul and promised more to come under Afghanistan’s first elected president, who is just days away from being announced. “We claim responsibility for all attacks against foreign troops in Afghanistan, as well as today’s attack in Kabul,” Taleban spokesman Abdul Latif Hakimi told AFP by satellite phone from an undisclosed location.
“There will be more attacks around the country such as (yesterday’s) attacks.” Three Icelandic peacekeepers, an unidentified foreign woman and three Afghans were wounded when a bearded man with grenades strapped under his traditional long smock blew himself up in the city’s bustling “Chicken Street” at 3:30 p.m. (1100 GMT).
Dozens of people were browsing through its bulging antique and carpet shops in autumn afternoon sunshine when the bomber struck. His ruptured body ended up on the sidewalk beneath two woven red carpets hung on display.
The attack in downtown Kabul was the boldest of several attacks by the Taleban since the Oct. 9 presidential elections, which they failed to disrupt through violence despite pledging to do so. It also came as the vote count neared to a close, surpassing 81 percent.
Incumbent leader Hamid Karzai, who has offered to bring moderate Taleban into a future administration, is on course for outright victory with 54.6 percent of votes. Hakimi also claimed the Taleban were behind a small roadside bombing of a US troop convoy in eastern Nangarhar province near the Pakistani frontier yesterday.
One soldier was slightly injured when his vehicle hit a homemade bomb planted by suspected militants, US military spokesman Master Sgt. Wendy Frable told AFP.
Hakimi claimed “some American soldiers” were killed in the attack, but Frable said only one suffered “very minor injuries”. US military officials had been writing off the Taleban as a demoralized, divided force after they failed to disrupt this month’s election.
But several attacks around Afghanistan since the surprisingly peaceful polling day have claimed at least 20 lives, including two US soldiers and three children. “We didn’t attack the elections because we did not want to harm and kill innocent people, but the Americans and foreign troops are our enemies,” Hakimi said. “We will remain an enemy of this government, we don’t care if it is elected or selected.”
In the past fortnight two Afghans have been killed in separate nighttime rocket attacks on Kabul, and a remote-controlled bomb killed three children and an adult in eastern Kunar province. Five Afghans were also killed in a roadside bomb attack in Paktika province, and two US troops were killed in similar circumstances in central Uruzgan province.
Kabul police chief Gen. Baba Jan said the attacker had six hand grenades strapped to his body, but three failed to detonate. “The attacker was killed. ISAF can confirm that this had all the hallmarks of a suicide attack,” said Lt Col. Patrick Poulain, spokesman at the International Security Assistance Force headquarters in the Afghan capital.
Reuters’ witnesses saw the attacker’s bloody corpse lying on the sidewalk, near a damaged ISAF vehicle. The ISAF troops had been patrolling Chicken Street, a well-known haunt for foreigners shopping for carpets, jewelry and antiques.
As counting in the presidential election neared its end, a dip in incumbent Hamid Karzai’s lead yesterday increased the burden on an independent panel to decide if voting irregularities could have upset the result. Election officials hope the panel that includes a Canadian diplomat and election experts from Britain and Sweden will have its report ready by midweek, shortly after the counting ends. The panel switched a planned meeting with candidates to tomorrow from yesterday. But many remain skeptical over the process. “We do not count on the panel... It is not the solution to our claims,” said Ahmad Shah Ahmadzai, who was eighth in a field of 18.
Another candidate, destined to be an also-ran, shared the same reservations. “From our side, we will raise and discuss the issue of the violations and frauds, during the meeting with the panel. I doubted from the very beginning that the panel has any power to solve the problems,” Abdul Hafiz Mansoor told Reuters. The nearer Karzai slips to the 51 percent mark, the easier it will be for his opponents to claim multiple voting and ballot stuffing helped him over the line. But the enthusiasm with which Afghans came out to vote on Oct. 9, has made Karzai’s opponents careful about calling foul. A turnout put at over eight million people was seen as a testimony to Afghans’ desire to end a quarter century of conflict.
