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Suicide attackers strike southeastern Afghan city
Published in Saudi Press Agency on 25 - 07 - 2009


For the second time in a week, Taliban
fighters armed with suicide vests and automatic weapons
attacked a provincial capital in eastern Afghanistan on
Saturday, triggering hours-long gunbattles that left seven
militants dead, officials said, according to AP.
The latest militant attack came less than a month before
Afghanistan's Aug. 20 presidential election. U.S. and NATO
forces have stepped up operations in hopes of ensuring
enough security for a strong voter turnout.
The assault in Khost began when at least six Taliban
fighters carrying AK-47s and rocket-propelled grenades
stormed the area around the main police station and a
nearby government-run bank. All were shot and killed before
they could detonate their suicide vests, the Interior
Ministry said in a statement.
A seventh attacker detonated a car rigged with explosives
near a police rapid reaction force, wounding two policemen,
the ministry said.
Interior Ministry spokesman Zemeri Bashary said all the
attackers were killed, but the Defense Ministry later said
an eighth attacker may have escaped. The ministry said no
government forces were killed but 14 people were wounded _
11 civilians and three police.
The attack came five days after Taliban militants launched
near-simultaneous assaults in Gardez, about 50 miles (80
kilometers) northwest of Khost, and in the eastern city of
Jalalabad. Six Afghan police and intelligence officers and
eight militants died in the two attacks.
Though the three attacks did not kill large numbers of
Afghan or U.S. security forces, they showed the tenuous
security situation in Afghanistan's countryside. Such
attacks grab headlines in Afghanistan and raise the
question of whether voters can safely go to polls.
The U.S. envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard
Holbrooke, alluded to those concerns, saying Saturday it
was «extraordinary» to hold an election in the middle of
war. He said the vote faces «many complex challenges,»
including security issues and access to polls for women.
Authorities need a respectable turnout for the results to
appear credible both here and in countries supporting the
government.
Holbrooke met separately with President Hamid Karzai and
his top two challengers _ former Foreign Minister Abdullah
Abdullah and former Finance Minister Ashraf Ghani.
Abdullah told Holbrooke that he is struggling to fight
Karzai's built-in advantage as president with government
assets at his disposal.
The former foreign minister noted a recent election
commission report that said 70 percent of election coverage
on the country's state TV channel goes to Karzai. «That's
a very worrying sign,» Abdullah said. «All the ministers,
the main ones, are out doing campaign work.»
Holbrooke said he was «concerned» over reports of state
media bias. Karzai's campaign has denied the president is
using government tools to campaign.
Karzai is believed to be the favorite to win the
presidency, but he must win more than 50 percent on Aug. 20
to avoid a run-off. Analysts say it is likely Karzai will
win unless the almost 40 challengers rally behind a single
opposition candidate.
Holbrooke and U.S. Ambassador Karl Eikenberry toured the
election commission and watched dozens of Afghans enter
voter registrations into banks of computers. He said the
«whole world» will be watching the election.
Responding to a question at a news conference about
whether there was enough security in the countryside to
hold a vote, Holbrooke said: «Do you want the Afghanistan
people to abandon the election in the face of a small band
of Taliban?»
U.S. troops helped provide security during the Khost
attack but were not involved in the battle.
Khost is about 15 miles (20 kilometers) from the Pakistani
border and has long been a flash point because of smuggling
across the frontier. Last May, 11 Taliban suicide bombers
struck government buildings in Khost, killing 20 people and
wounding three Americans.
Also Saturday, a British soldier was killed by a roadside
bomb in Helmand province, the focus of major offensives by
U.S. and British forces. The soldier was the 20th British
service member killed in Afghanistan this month and the
189th since the war began in 2001.
Fighting has increased sharply in Afghanistan this month
after President Barack Obama ordered thousands more U.S.
troops to the country, shifting the focus of the war
against Muslim extremism from Iraq.
At least 66 international troops have died in July, the
bloodiest month of the nearly eight-year war.


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