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Nine killed as UN voices concerns over Afghan vote
AFP - Wednesday, July 29
KABUL (AFP) - - The top UN official in Afghanistan on Tuesday urged the Taliban not to disrupt elections, as militants killed nine people, ambushed a presidential campaign manager and fired rockets into a UN compound.
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A surge in attacks by Taliban and other militants battling the government and allied Western troops has raised concerns that insecurity will lead to poor voter turnout and throw into doubt the legitimacy of the August 20 poll.
Only Afghanistan's second ever presidential ballot, the election is seen as a key test of US and NATO-backed efforts to install democracy and stability in a country besieged by decades of conflict.
Foreign and Afghan officials are at pains to reassure people that everything is being done to keep them safe as they vote for a head of state and provincial councillors, but on Tuesday a wave of fresh violence struck the country.
In eastern Laghman province, a campaign manager for leading presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah was shot as he travelled to a gathering and his nephew, who was driving, was killed.
"His vehicle was attacked on the way to the district. His driver was killed and he is wounded," Murtaza Qalandarzai, deputy provincial governor, told AFP.
Abdullah was not present at the time.
It was the second attack in as many days on Abdullah's campaign and came after a running mate of President Hamid Karzai escaped unharmed when militants armed with guns and rockets ambushed his convoy on Sunday.
There are 41 candidates standing for president, including Karzai, who is tipped to win despite his failure to quell the raging Taliban insurgency.
In the south, a remote-controlled bomb planted by insurgents ripped through two vehicles and killed eight Afghan private security guards in the province of Helmand on Tuesday, the government said.
One civilian was wounded in western Herat province when one of a salvo of rockets directed at a UN compound smashed into a nearby house, regional police chief Ikramuddin Yawar told AFP.
Seven rockets were fired, of which two landed inside the compound, but no staff were hurt and offices remained open, a UN statement said.
Afghanistan's intelligence service said its spies arrested three men, who confessed under interrogation to planning suicide attacks in central Kapisa province in a bid to disrupt the electoral process.
Kai Eide, head of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), acknowledged "significant" security concerns.
"There have been some attacks on candidates... This is a matter of great concern," Eide told reporters in Kabul.
"My message to everybody including Taliban is it is in the interests of each and every Afghan that elections can take place in each province, in each district, in each village, so that all Afghans can express their views and cast their vote," he said.
The UN electoral assistance team noted attacks on campaign teams, cases of intimidation and the July 19 assassination of a candidate for the provincial council election to be held alongside the presidential vote.
Eide told reporters, however, that he was confident the Independent Election Commission and security forces were doing everything they could to "make as much of the country as possible secure for elections."
He called the polls "the most complicated elections I have seen" and praised Afghanistan for holding a ballot in the middle of a war.
About 90,000 US and NATO troops are deployed in Afghanistan helping local forces battle a Taliban insurgency which is as its deadliest since the US-led invasion in late 2001 toppled their government.
On Monday, a spokesman for Karzai said a truce had been signed with Taliban militants in the restive Bala Murghab district of northwest Badghis province, in a deal aimed at smoothing security for the elections.
But the same day, 50 kilometres (30 miles) from Bala Murghab, militants attacked security forces, wounding two police and killing "a number of Taliban", regional police chief Ikramuddin Yawar said.
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US Marines search for insurgents in Gharmsir district in Helmand Province on July 27. The top UN official in Afghanistan has urged the Taliban not to disrupt elections, as militants killed nine people, ambushed a presidential campaign manager and fired rockets into a UN compound.
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