Gunfire erupts in Kabul ahead of presidential vote

By AMIR SHAH, Associated Press Writer

KABUL – Gunfire and explosions reverberated through the heart of the Afghan capital Wednesday on the eve of the presidential election and a day after insurgents fired at the presidential palace and unleashed a suicide car bomb on a NATO convoy in Kabul.

Three or four 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, said Interior Ministry spokesman Zemeri Bashary.

Police surrounded the building, exchanging gunfire with the attackers. Bashary said there had been no casualties, but the sound of scattered gunfire and small explosions reverberated through the city for several hours. Few civilians were in the area because government ministries and businesses were closed Wednesday in observance of Afghanistan's independence day celebration from British rule.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said 20 armed suicide attackers wearing explosive vests had entered Kabul and that five of them were battling police. The claim could not be confirmed, but the Taliban in recent months have often unleashed attacks involving teams of insurgents attacking government or high-profile sites.

The latest attacks were an ominous sign that the Taliban and their militant allies are determined to disrupt Thursday's election, in which incumbent President Hamid Karzai is up against some three dozen other presidential candidates. The Islamist insurgents have threatened those who take part in the election — a crucial step in President Barack Obama's campaign to turn around the deteriorating war.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Tuesday that the rise in insurgent violence in Afghanistan reflected a deliberate campaign to intimidate voters. 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."

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."

The next president will face challenges on several fronts: the rising Taliban insurgency, internal political divisions, ethnic tensions, unemployment, the country's drug trade and corruption.

Karzai is favored to win, but if he does not get more than 50 percent of Thursday's vote he and the second-place finisher will face off in an October run-off. Polls show Karzai's former foreign minister, Abdullah Abdullah, in second place with around 25 percent support. Polls have shown Karzai's support around 45 percent.

In a bid to promote a big voter turnout, the NATO-led military force announced Tuesday that the more than 100,000 international troops here will refrain from offensive operations on election day, focusing instead on protecting voters.

Fearing that violence may dampen turnout, the Foreign Ministry issued a statement Tuesday asking 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." The statement did not spell out any penalties for those who do not comply.

The English version said media "are requested" to follow the guidelines. The version in the Afghan language Dari said broadcasting news or video from a "terrorist attack" was "strictly forbidden."

It was unclear how the government intended to enforce the ban. Rachel Reid, the Afghanistan researcher for Human Rights Watch, said freedom of expression was enshrined in the Afghan Constitution and that any attempt to censor the reporting would be "an unreasonable violation of press freedoms."

"Afghans have a right to know about the security threats that they face, and make their own assessments about security," Reid said.

Despite heightened security in Kabul and other major cities, a series of attacks in the capital, starting with a suicide bombing Saturday that killed seven people near the main gate of NATO headquarters, has raised doubts that Afghan authorities can guarantee security on election day.

Eight people died, including a NATO soldier, and about 50 were wounded in the suicide bomb attack on a NATO convoy in Kabul on Tuesday, authorities said. In eastern Afghanistan, two U.S. service members were killed and three wounded in a separate bombing, the U.S. military announced, pushing the death toll this month for the American force to 26.