He said the toll was provisional and could rise further. The blast struck just outside the heavily fortified military compound in a diplomatic quarter of the capital. (Reporting by Hamid Shalizi; Writing by Peter Graff; Editing by Paul Tait)
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By ROBERT H. REID and RAHIM FAIEZ, Associated Press Writers Robert H. Reid And Rahim Faiez, Associated Press Writers – 2 hrs 15 mins ago
KABUL – A suicide car bomber struck near the front gate of NATO headquarters in Kabul on Saturday, killing seven people and wounding nearly 100 in a brazen daylight attack less than a week before Afghanistan's landmark presidential election.
Also Saturday, U.S. Marines pushed deeper into the strategic Helmand province town of Dahaneh for a fourth straight day, meeting fierce Taliban resistance as surface-to-surface missiles and Harrier fighter jets pounded insurgent positions in the surrounding hills.
The blast, which occurred about 8:35 a.m. in Kabul's heavily guarded diplomatic quarter, appeared aimed at frightening Afghans against participating in Thursday's presidential election and demonstrating that insurgents can strike whenever and wherever they want.
A Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility for the explosion, which rattled windows across a wide area of the Afghan capital and sent a huge, mushroom cloud of dense black smoke rising into the blue sky.
It was the biggest insurgent attack in Kabul in six months and shook public confidence in the extensive network of checkpoints and armed guards that maintain security in the city.
The bomber managed to evade several rings of Afghan police and detonated his vehicle about 30 yards (meters) from the main entrance to the NATO base, where top U.S. commander Gen. Stanley McChrystal has his headquarters. It was unknown whether McChrystal was there at the time of the attack.
After the blast, bloodied and dazed Afghans wandered the street. They included children who congregate outside the NATO gate to sell gum to Westerners. Windows of nearby antique shops and diplomatic residences were shattered and blood smeared the ground.
President Hamid Karzai blamed the attack on the "enemies of Afghanistan" who were "trying to create fear among the people as we get close to the election," in which Karzai is favored to win a second, five-year term.
Karzai said in a statement that Afghans "are not afraid of any threats, and they will go to cast their votes."
Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid claimed responsibility and said the target was the NATO headquarters and the U.S. Embassy about 150 yards (meters) down the street. A top Kabul police official blamed al-Qaida because of the size of the blast.
Brig. Gen. E. Tremblay, the spokesman for the NATO-led force, said some soldiers in the International Security Assistance Force were wounded in the blast but did not say how many. Macedonia said three Macedonian soldiers who were guarding the gate were slightly injured.
Afghan security forces stopped the vehicle in front of NATO headquarters, then the bomber detonated the explosives, Tremblay said.
"The security measures in place have stopped cold the bombers as planned," he said, calling the latest attack an example of the "residual risk" that remained despite the safety measures taken. "It's very difficult to stop a suicide bomber."
The blast killed seven Afghans and wounded 91, Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi, the spokesman for the Afghan Ministry of Defense, said.
Among the wounded were four Afghan soldiers and Awa Alam Nuristani, a member of parliament and Karzai's campaign manager for women, the ministry said.
"I was drinking tea in our office when a big explosion happened," said Abdul Fahim, an Afghan in his mid-20s who suffered leg injuries. "I lay on the ground and then I saw wounded victims everywhere, including police and civilians."
The chief of Kabul's criminal investigation department, Abdul Ghafar Sayadzada, said 600 pounds (272 kilograms) of explosives were used, and that because of the amount he suspected al-Qaida was involved. The attacker passed three police checkpoints, Sayadzada said.
But Mujahid, the Taliban spokesman, said a suicide bomber named Ahmadullah from the Bagrami district of Kabul province carried out Saturday's attack.
It was the first major assault in Kabul since February, when eight Taliban militants struck three government buildings simultaneously in the heart of the city. At least 28 people, including eight assailants, were killed.
Interior Ministry spokesman Zemeri Bashery said police were trying to figure out how the insurgents managed to carry out such an attack in one of the most tightly secured areas of the city.
"They must have used a new tactic to carry out this suicide attack," he said. "What kind of tactic we cannot say until the investigation is over."
Mujahid brushed aside talk of new tactics but said "we have peoples' support with us, the people are helping us to carry out our attacks."
"We have already announced that the people should not participate in the election," he said. "We have announced that the people should not participate in this American process. We are going to block the highways and roads leading to polling centers and attack those polling centers where we see Americans and other foreigners."
In Dahaneh, Marines launched a pre-dawn raid against a Taliban position on the southern edge of the town, storming a fortified compound and then blowing up two towers from which insurgents fired rockets and mortars at U.S. troops the day before.
Marines found marijuana plants growing in the courtyard and confiscated trigger plates used to manufacture roadside bombs.
U.S. troops launched an assault on Dahaneh early Wednesday, hoping to disrupt Taliban supply lines in the Now Zad valley and establish Afghan government control over an area held by the Taliban for years.
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Associated Press Writers Amir Shah and Nahal Toosi in Kabul and Alfred de Montesquiou in Dahaneh contributed to this report.
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Suicide car bomb, rockets strike Kabul ahead of vote
18 Aug 2009 12:29:48 GMT
Source: Reuters
(For more on Afghanistan, click on [ID:nAFPAK])
* Seven killed, 52 wounded in car bomb attack
* Obama defends war as "worth fighting"
* United Nations envoy optimistic polls will be a success
* West alarmed by Karzai's support from ex-militia leaders
By Hamid Shalizi
KABUL, Aug 18 (Reuters) - A suicide car bomber killed at least seven people in an attack on a Western military convoy in the Afghan capital on Tuesday and a Taliban rocket hit the presidential palace grounds two days before tense elections.
Security officials said at least 52 were wounded by the bomber, who rammed his explosive-laden vehicle into the convoy on the notorious Jalalabad road, scene of frequent Taliban attacks and home to many Western aid and military compounds.
A spokesman for the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan said foreign troops were among the dead and wounded, without elaborating.
Aleem Siddique, a spokeman for the United Nations mission in Kabul, said two Afghan U.N. staff members were among the dead. He said a U.N. vehicle had been caught up in the strike but had not been the bomber's target.
With incumbent Hamid Karzai fighting to win a fresh mandate without a second round run-off, Thursday's election is also a test of U.S. President Barack Obama's strategy of escalating the 8-year-old conflict in an effort to reverse recent Taliban gains.
In a speech on Monday aimed at bolstering public support, Obama called the Afghan conflict "a war worth fighting".
Taliban militants have vowed to step up that fight and disrupt the poll with violence that could damage the election's legitimacy by limiting voter turnout.
Thick black smoke poured from the scene of Tuesday's suicide bombing and police held back onlookers as the wounded were ferried away in ambulances and pickup trucks.
"I saw wounded people and dead people everywhere," said a shopkeeper named Sawad. "I helped some people to ambulances, their clothes were covered in blood stains."
Several small rockets were fired at the capital overnight. A police source said one caused some damage inside the sprawling, fortified presidential palace compound and a second hit the capital's police headquarters. Neither caused any casualties.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the rocket attacks on Kabul, the third this month.
In Uruzgan province in the south, a suicide bomber on foot killed three Afghan soldiers and two civilians at a police checkpoint. A provincial council candidate was shot dead in northern Jowzjan province.
With civilian and military casualties reaching record levels in the past few months, two more U.S. service members were also killed by a roadside bomb in the east, the U.S. military said.
BULLISH ASSESSMENT
Election campaigning officially ended at midnight after a final day of hectic rallies in support of Karzai and his main rival, former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah.
In a bullish assessment on Tuesday, Kai Eide, the United Nations special representative for Afghanistan, said he expected the vote would be a success.
"The campaign has exceeded my expectations and I believe they represent a milestone in political maturity in Afghanistan," Eide told a news conference.
"I'm not trying to hide that there have been irregularities, but my overall assesment is that this has been a success for the Afghan people."
Polls show Karzai likely to win Thursday's vote, but not with the outright majority required to avoid a second round in six weeks. The president is relying on the last-minute support of former guerrilla chieftains in a bid to tip the balance.
Abdullah, an urbane eye doctor, has run an energetic campaign, seeking to garner support from beyond his base in the mainly ethnic Tajik north.
Recent polls give Karzai about 45 percent of the vote to 25 percent for Abdullah. Karzai has secured last-minute endorsements from regional chieftains since the polls were conducted.
Karzai's late reliance on ex-militia leaders such as Uzbek General Abdul Rashid Dostum has raised alarm among his international backers worried that warlords could return to power in the country they dominated for decades.
Dostum, who won 10 percent of the vote in 2004, returned from exile in Turkey late on Sunday to back Karzai.
The United States and the United Nations both expressed concern that Dostum could return to government. Washington said he may have been responsible for human rights violations.
Taliban disruption could hurt Karzai's chance of a first-round win by lowering turnout in southern areas most affected by the insurgency, his ethnic Pashtun heartland.
Karzai said attacks such as Tuesday's suicide bombing would not deter Afghans, who would vote "despite the efforts of the enemies and will show their opposition to their barbaric acts".
More than 30,000 extra U.S. troops have arrived in Afghanistan this year, raising the total number of Western troops above 100,000 for the first time, including 63,000 Americans.
The Western troops will maintain outer perimeter security during the election, with Afghan soldiers and police guarding towns and polling stations. The NATO-led Western force said on Tuesday it would refrain from conducting offensive operations on election day, in line with an earlier pledge from Afghan troops.
On Saturday the Taliban killed seven people and wounded scores in a suicide car bomb attack on ISAF's Kabul headquarters. (Additional reporting by Sayed Salahuddin, Peter Graff and Paul Tait in KABUL, Mohammed Hamed in KUNDUZ, Mohammed Rafiq in JALALABAD and Ismail Sameem in KANDAHAR) (For more Reuters coverage of Afghanistan and Pakistan, see: http://www.reuters.com/news/globalcoverage/afghanistanpakistan)
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