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Reuters – Violence rises ahead of Afghan poll
KABUL – Associated Press -
The U.S. military says three American troops have been killed in two incidents in southern Afghanistan.
The deaths bring to six the number of U.S. deaths announced by the military on Wednesday. That pushes to at least 32 the number of dead American troops in August.
The statement says two of those killed Wednesday in southern Afghanistan died after a gunfire attack on their patrol. Another died in a "hostile attack."
AP's earlier story is below.
KABUL (AP) —
Police stormed a bank in Kabul on Wednesday and killed three Taliban fighers who had taken it over, while a wave of attacks killed at least six election workers around the country on the eve of the presidential election, officials said.
A roadside bomb in the south, meanwhile, killed two U.S. troops Tuesday, while another American died of non-battle-related injuries on Wednesday, the U.S. military spokesmen said.
The three-man assault in Kabul came a day after two Taliban attacks in the capital, including rockets fired at the presidential palace. It also follows a suicide car bomb explosion in front of NATO's Kabul headquarters Saturday that killed seven, a drumbeat of attacks that would appear to signal the intent of Taliban fighters to disrupt Thursday's vote.
Taliban fighers unleashed attacks around the country on poll workers, killing at least six.
In a region generally considered safe, four election workers were killed Tuesday when their vehicle struck a roadside bomb about 20 miles (30 kilometers) outside the capital of northeastern Badakhshan province. Najafi said they were delivering materials to a polling station.
Another two election workers were killed in Shorabak district of Kandahar province on Tuesday when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb, said Abdul Wasai Alakozai, the chief electoral officer for southern Afghanistan.
A remote-controlled roadside bomb exploded early Wednesday near a vehicle taking voting supplies to a poll in the Chaparhar district of the eastern province of Nangarhar, said Ahmad Zia Abdulzai, the governor's spokesman. The driver was slightly wounded, but the voting materials were not damaged, he said. Security forces arrested the man who detonated the bomb, he said.
The Interior Ministry says about a third of Afghanistan is at high-risk of militant attack, and that no polling stations will open in eight Afghan districts under control of militants.
The three armed men took over a branch of the Pashtani bank early Wednesday in a section of Kabul's old city still in ruins from the country's 1990s civil war. Police surrounded the building, exchanging gunfire with the attackers. The sound of scattered gunfire and small explosions reverberated through the city for several hours.
Abdul Ghafar Sayedzada, head of Kabul's criminal investigations unit, said police eventually stormed the building and killed three (bank robbers). Few civilians were in the area because government ministries and businesses were closed Wednesday in observance of Afghanistan's independence from British rule.
Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said 20 armed suicide attackers wearing explosive vests had entered Kabul and that five of them battled police. The claim could not be confirmed, but the Taliban in recent months have unleashed several attacks involving teams of insurgents assaulting government or high-profile sites.
The latest attacks were an ominous sign that the Taliban fightgers are determined to disrupt Thursday's election.
A shopkeeper near Wednesday's gunfire attack in Kabul, Abdul Jalal, said that if violence persisted into Thursday, he and his wife would not vote.
"Tomorrow we plan to go the polling center," said Jalal. "But if it was like today, we will not vote. Elections are a good thing for Afghanistan, but security is more important."
Attacks nationwide have increased in recent days from a daily average of about 32 to 48, said Brig. Gen. E. Tremblay, the spokesman for the NATO-led force. Even with the increase, Tremblay said that insurgents do not have the ability to widely disrupt voting at the country's 6,500 or so polling sites.
"When you're looking purely at statistics ... they're not going to be able to attack even 1 percent of the entire polling sites in this country," he said on Tuesday.
U.N. Secretery-General Ban Ki-moon encouraged all Afghans to vote and said that by participating in the election Afghans will help "bring fresh vigor to the country's political life, and ultimately reaffirm their commitment to contribute to the peace and prosperity of their nation."
Fearing that violence may dampen turnout, the Foreign Ministry issued a statement Tuesday demanding that news organizations to avoid "broadcasting any incidence of violence" between 6 a.m. and 8 p.m. on election day "to ensure the wide participation of the Afghan people."
In other violence, a roadside bomb killed a district government leader and a tribal elder early Wednesday in the Registan district of Kandahar, said Ghulam Ali Wahadat, a police commander in southern Afghanistan.
Another roadside bomb in Tirin Kot, in Uruzgan province, killed three policemen, said Ali Jan, a provincial police official.
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Associated Press reporters Fisnik Abrashi and Rahim Faiez in Kabul and Noor Khan in Kandahar contributed to this report.
