KABUL, Afghanistan — Unnerved by another wave of deadly pre-election attacks by Taliban insurgents including a rocket assault aimed at the presidential palace, the Afghan government on Tuesday ordered unusual restrictions on all news organizations, banning them from reporting suicide bombings and other violence during the Thursday vote.
At least eight people were killed in one of the attacks, a suicide car bombing, including a soldier of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, and two Afghans working for the United Nations mission, and 53 people were wounded, officials said. Of the rockets that hit Kabul early Tuesday morning, one landed on the grounds of the presidential palace and another hit a police station. No one was hurt by the rockets, officials said, but the audacity of the attacks in the heart of the capital demonstrated the power of the insurgents to disrupt and intimidate.
Even as the government, and United States and NATO forces have worked hard to secure polling centers in violence-prone southern Afghanistan, they find themselves increasingly locked in a propaganda battle with the Taliban, as it wages a campaign of fear to deter voters.
The Taliban has issued repeated warnings in statements to the press — the most recent emailed to reporters by a spokesman Monday — and carried out two massive suicide car bombings and rocket attacks on the capital in two days, to create a sense of fear to keep voters at home.
A Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing when contacted by telephone.
In another attack on Tuesday morning, in the southern province of Oruzgan, a suicide bomber walked up to an Afghan National Army checkpoint and detonated his explosive vest, killing three soldiers and two civilians, according to the provincial police chief, Juma Gul Himat.
The government meanwhile has urged people not to be deterred and to come out and vote on Thursday in presidential and provincial council elections. No one was hurt in the rocket attacks and President Hamid Karzai had started work half an hour before the rocket hit at 7 A.m., presidential spokesman Homayoun Hamidzada said.
“Such kind of attacks shows that the enemies want to disrupt the election process, but we ask people to exercise their right of participation in the elections with strong will,” he said at a news briefing.
“They will try to attack polling stations and intimidate people, but we are working hard in close coordination with ISAF and other international security forces, as well as with the Independent Electoral Commission to maintain security,” he said.
Later the Afghan Foreign Ministry issued a statement asking all domestic and international news agencies to refrain from broadcasting any incidence of violence between 6 A.M. and 8 P.M. on election day. The National Security Council had made the decision “in view of the need to ensure the wide participation of the Afghan people in up-coming presidential and provincial council elections, and prevent any election-related terrorist violence,” the statement said.
The government is concerned that a show of force by the Taliban and low turnout will undermine the credibility of the elections. Low turnout, especially in the war-torn south, would affect Mr Karzai’s results in the election, since the ethnic Pashtuns who populate the south are the base of his support.
Yet the Taliban has been stepping up its campaign against the elections. In an emailed statement Tuesday, sent by spokesman Zabiullah Mujahed, the movement denied that any agreements had been made with the government to allow elections to take place. It described talk of peace deals as a “cunning trick” by the enemy.
“The Islamic Emirates now makes clear to the people that the result of this election will never be acceptable,” the statement said. “The world community and our fellow countrymen must not see this process as flourishing and as an Afghan process,” it said.
The propaganda seems to be working. Local television stations were reporting Tuesday that shop owners were already closing their shops in Kabul, and in the eastern city of Khost, in fear of attacks or other violence over the elections.
The toll from the suicide bombing in Kabul, the second in two days, was also high. One eye-witness said he saw a white saloon car race after a British military logistics convoy and explode as it slammed into it.
“Suddenly we heard a very loud bomb and a big cloud of dust rose from where the
attack happened,” said Ghulam Muhammad, 22, who saw the car from his vegetable store. “Six to seven people were wounded and we tried to help and take them to an ambulance but then the security forces stopped us,” he said. “The explosion was huge and I could see many people lying on the road,” he said.
Seven people were killed and 51 wounded, all civilians, the head of the police criminal investigation department, Sayed Abdul Ghaffar said at the scene. Eighteen cars were set on fire by the explosion and shops and stalls damaged, he said.
The attack occurred just off the main road leading east out of the capital to Jalalabad. A statement from ISAF said one foreign soldier was killed and two others wounded in the attack. A statement from Afghanistan’s Interior Ministry said seven civilians were killed and 50 wounded.
The United Nations confirmed that two of its Afghan staff members were among those killed.
Shortly before the explosion NATO-led forces said they would suspend offensive operations on election day, only deploying coalition and Afghan troops to protect voters, election monitors and polling stations.
“In support of the Afghan National Security Forces who lead the security efforts during the electoral process, only those operations that are deemed necessary to protect the population will be conducted on that day,” they said in a statement.
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