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Taliban say will not attack Afghan voters

Posted on: Monday, 22 August 2005, 08:23 CDT

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.

Source: REUTERS

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