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Taliban directly threaten Afghan polls
AFP - Monday, August 17
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AFP) - - The Taliban on Sunday threatened for the first time to attack Afghan voting stations, escalating their bid to derail imminent polls despite deadly government operations against rebels.
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In the final campaign countdown, President Hamid Karzai took part in his first live television debate with two of his main rivals Sunday, promising to restore security after a daring Taliban attack targeted NATO.
The Taliban threat was made in leaflets, pinned up and dropped in villages in the south, and authenticated by a spokesman who said the militia would accelerate its bloody campaign of violence on the eve of the elections.
Afghanistan's 17 million voters will go to the polls Thursday to elect a president for the second time in history, as well as 420 councillors in 34 provinces in a massive operation clouded by insecurity and logistics headaches.
"This is to inform respected residents that you must not participate in the elections so as not to become a victim of our operations, because we will use new tactics," said one leaflet distributed in Kandahar city and seen by AFP.
Taliban spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmadi confirmed the leaflets were authentic and that commanders were ordering the masses to boycott the vote.
"We are using new tactics targeting election centres... We will accelerate our activities on election day and the day before," the spokesman said.
The leaflets marked the first direct threat from the rebels to attack polling sites. Late last month, the Taliban ordered voters to stay away from the polls and join the ranks of the militia in waging holy war to "liberate" Afghanistan.
Karzai's controversial alliances with warlords came under fire during a first television election debate attended by an Afghan head of state.
In a 90-minute head-to-head broadcast live, he was criticised by outspoken anti-corruption campaigner Ramazan Bashardost and former finance minister Ashraf Ghani over the alleged deals, which could see Karzai win the vote.
The president hit back, pledging the "protection of Afghanistan and national unity and removal of war and guns from Afghanistan".
The defence ministry Sunday claimed security forces killed more than 30 rebels, including 10 foreigners, in an overnight operation pounding Taliban centres in a bid to secure a troublespot near the Pakistani border before the polls.
The US military said an air strike and ground clashes killed "approximately 25 militants" when Afghan and US troops assaulted a rebel training camp to stop a commander's plans for a pre-election attack using foreign fighters.
The overnight operation took place on turf of the powerful militant group controlled by Jalaluddin Haqqani, a hero of the 1980s resistance to Soviet occupation turned Taliban ally, and his son Siraj, an Al-Qaeda cohort.
US, NATO and Afghan troops have launched multiple operations -- particularly against Taliban flashpoints in the south -- hoping to protect the elections.
The defence ministry said Afghan and NATO-led troops also wrested a southern district from insurgents, hoisting the Afghan flag over Naw Zad on Sunday. The government said at least eight districts were still outside its control.
Taliban threats and soaring attacks have raised widespread concern that poor turnout on Thursday could jeopardise the legitimacy of the elections.
A suicide bombing outside NATO headquarters in Kabul killed seven civilians and wounded 91 others on Saturday, one of the most audacious attacks in months.
It was a "warning that the Taliban can attack any time," said analyst Waheed Mujda. "The tactics they use make them very difficult to stop."
There are more than 100,000 foreign troops based in Afghanistan, where US and British fatalities have reached record levels since the 2001 invasion ousted the Taliban regime and installed a Western-backed administration.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown insisted troops were doing a "vital" job in Afghanistan as the British military death toll shot up to 201.
NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen paid tribute but said that "stabilising Afghanistan to prevent the return of terrorism that threatens us all remains a critical security task".
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