On Sunday evening in Afghanistan's southern city of Kandahar two masked men on a motorbike stopped in the middle of a bazaar, pulled out guns, killed a man and then sped off.The dead man was Haji Abdul-Hai, a tribal chieftain with strong connections to the Western-backed government of President Hamid Karzai, which is the target of a bitter Taliban insurgency.The assassination of government officials, their associates or anyone notably linked to the government has become routine in the volatile city.A series of shockingly audacious murders in recent months has spread fear throughout the city and as far as the highest levels of leadership in Kabul.The UN on Monday ordered its 200 Afghan staff in the city to remain indoors for their own safety, and relocated foreign staff to Kabul, a spokesman said.Karzai held a National Security Council meeting at the weekend to discuss the deadly surge of attacks against officials in his home town.The security chiefs presented Karzai with a plan aimed at countering the attacks, said his spokesman, Waheed Omar, adding: "The president will personally follow this."Since late February, when Taliban assailants killed Abdul Majid Babai, provincial director of information and culture, 12 people, mostly working for the provincial government, have been murdered.The killing spree has emerged as US and NATO troops have been conducting military operations in and around the city as part of a stealthy offensive to eradicate the militant threat.Kandahar was the birthplace of the Taliban movement in the 1990s, capital of their 1996-2001 regime, and has long been the heartland of the insurgency.
Much of the city, as well as large swathes of the province, are under Taliban control.
NATO and the United States have 126,000 troops in Afghanistan battling the insurgency, with the number set to reach 150,000 by August. Many are heading south, military officials have said, with the aim of neutralizing the Taliban by the time the Ramadan religious festival begins in August.
As the campaign intensifies, the Taliban are adapting their own tactics, adding assassination to crude mines and suicide bombings.
The recent killings have been almost identical. So far this month, four people have been shot by men on motorbikes: Abdul-Hai, as well as a deputy mayor, an agriculture official and a young Afghan woman working for a US aid organisation.
The militants have claimed responsibility, with a spokesman saying Abdul-Hai was killed "because his brothers are working for the puppet government".
Yousuf Ahmadi, the Taliban spokesman, told AFP by phone from an unknown location that the deadly campaign "will continue".
"We will kill anyone working for the puppet government," he said.
The killings appear to have had the desired effect.
"Lots of people are scared, I'm scared," said a senior government official in Kandahar, requesting anonymity.The official said many people in his department had resigned in recent weeks and more were threatening to do so, fearful of becoming targets.Even worse, he said, their fear could prompt them to get close to the militants as a way of ensuring their safety."If this situation continues, if these assassinations are not stopped, I tell you lots of government officials will establish contact with the Taliban."They will have to. They'll make contact with the Taliban to protect themselves," the official told AFP, adding: "This has to stop."
The assassinations are eroding support for the Karzai government, already unpopular across much of the south and east, where the Taliban presence is strongest.
"This government can't protect us," said Dost Mohammad, a baker in downtown Kandahar.
"We already had lots of problems with Taliban bomb attacks and suicide attacks," he said. "Now we have one more thing. Every day I sit by the radio to see who else has been assassinated."
Kandahar authorities are working on a plan to try to deal with this new challenge, said Zalmai Ayoubi, a provincial government spokesman.
"The assassination of prominent people has escalated. We're working on a plan and hope with the implementation of that plan that the situation improves," he said, without going into detail.
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