Suspected Taliban militants launched a string of attacks on security posts in southern Afghanistan on Saturday, killing nine soldiers, an official said. The attacks came the same day as the head of U.S.-led coalition forces in Afghanistan warned that the Taliban and their al Qaeda allies were stepping up plans to disrupt a landmark presidential election on Oct. 9. Haji Mohammad Wali, spokesman for the governor of Helmand province, said an unspecified number of gunmen launched raids on three security posts along a road between Girishk in the southern Helmand province and Delawar in the western province of Farah. Three soldiers were killed in the first attack, six in the second and there were no casualties in the third. Wali blamed the "enemies of Afghanistan", a phrase often used to describe remnants of the ousted Taliban militia, which opposes the election and has been accused of launching a wave of violence that has claimed more than 1,000 lives since August last year. In Kabul, the U.S. military's commander in Afghanistan said coalition forces had intelligence reports saying Taliban and al Qaeda fighters were stepping up plans to disrupt the election. "For all terrorists in the region ... disrupting the election is part of their agenda," Lieutenant-General David Barno told a news conference in Kabul.
