Attacks increase in run-up to Afghan elections

A DEADLY suicide bombing at a mosque and an attempt to shoot down a US military aircraft with a shoulder-launched missile may signal the start of a campaign of violence by al-Qaida and Taliban rebels to destabilise Afghanistan’s legislative elections, President Hamid Karzai’s spokesman said yesterday.

Twenty people were killed in the June 1 blast in the southern city of Kandahar during the funeral of a moderate Muslim cleric who had spoken out against Taliban-led insurgents. Among the dead was the Kabul police chief and six of his bodyguards.

US military spokesman Lt Col Jerry O’Hara confirmed a shoulder-launched, surface-to-air missile was fired at a US aircraft on June 1. He said such attacks were infrequent and described it as an “isolated incident.”