Taliban say will not attack Afghan voters

By Robert Birsel

KABUL (Reuters) – Taliban fighters will not attack polling
stations during next month’s election in Afghanistan, a
spokesman for the guerrillas said on Monday, but he vowed that
the war against the government and U.S. forces would go on.

Also on Monday, the U.S. military said U.S. and Afghan
government troops had killed more than 100 militants over the
past few weeks in aggressive operations aimed at ensuring
security for the September 18 election.

“We have decided not to target polling stations in civilian
areas,” a spokesman for the militant group, Abdul Latif Hakimi,
said by telephone from an undisclosed location.

“U.S. and Afghan forces are setting up polling stations in
crowded areas which if attacked will cause big losses,” said
Hakimi, who government and security officials believe is the
main Taliban spokesman.

About 1,000 people, most of them Taliban fighters, have
been killed in clashes, ambushes and bomb blasts this year,
raising concern about the election, particularly in the
country’s most-troubled areas in the south and east.

U.S. forces have suffered 47 deaths in combat in
Afghanistan this year, four in a blast on Sunday, their worst
casualty rate in the country since arriving in late 2001 to
force the Taliban from power.

In the latest violence, a suspected Taliban militant blew
himself up when challenged at a checkpoint near the southern
border town of Spin Boldak, a security official said.

Despite the violence, Afghan government and U.S. officials
say the vote, the country’s next big step on a difficult path
to stability, will not be disrupted.

The Taliban have condemned the election and warned people
not to take part but have not threatened to attack polling
stations.

A spokesman for NATO-led peacekeepers said he believed the
Taliban thought it would be counter-productive to attack the
vote, given the amount the Afghan people had invested in the
process. A U.S. military spokeswoman referred to the Taliban
announcement as a positive step.

“ATTACKS WILL CONTINUE”

Hakimi said Taliban attacks would go on.

“Our movement is not restricted to the polls,” he said.
“Our aim is not only to disrupt the elections, our attacks will
continue even after the elections.”

The U.S. military says it is involved in aggressive
operations to ensure polling security and 105 militants have
been killed in a series of clashes over recent weeks in two
provinces.

“ANA and coalition forces continue to aggressively
establish enduring security,” U.S. spokeswoman Lieutenant Cindy
Moore told a briefing, referring to the U.S.-trained Afghan
National Army.

About 65 militants have been killed in 25 clashes in Zabul
province in the south over the past week, while about 40 were
killed in fighting in Kunar province in the east over the last
several weeks, she said.

Kunar, near the Pakistani border, was the scene in June of
the heaviest U.S. casualties in a combat incident in
Afghanistan. Sixteen American troops were killed when militants
shot down their helicopter during a mission to rescue a
four-man team trapped in a firefight.

Three members of the trapped team were killed and one
rescued.

The operation in Kunar, which included 29 separate clashes,
had succeeded in disrupting enemy forces and clearing the way
for the election, the U.S. military said.

The United States heads a 20,000-strong international force
in Afghanistan fighting Taliban and al Qaeda militants and
hunting for their leaders.

Another 10,000 NATO-led peacekeepers are also helping with
security for the parliamentary and provincial elections.