Major upsurge of violence across Afghanistan

Afghanistan’s government claimed that al-Qaida and Taliban rebels launched a violent campaign last week to subvert landmark legislative elections with a deadly suicide bombing and a failed attempt to down a US military aircraft with a shoulder-launched missile.

Meanwhile, the US military confirmed yesterday that senior al-Qaida suspect Abu Farraj al-Libbi, who was arrested in neighbouring Pakistan a month ago, has been flown to the US – amid expectations he will be questioned on the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden, who is assumed to be hiding in rugged mountains along the border.

In another development, suspected Taliban rebels yesterday attacked a fuel tanker that had delivered petrol to a US base in Afghanistan’s south, killing the Pakistani driver and assistant, said Gen Raziq Khan, the commander for border security in Spin Boldak district, where the assault occurred.

The warning by President Hamid Karzai’s spokesman, Jawed Ludin, of efforts to destabilise the September 18 elections – the next key step toward democracy three years after US-led forces ousted the Taliban for harbouring al-Qaida - comes amid a major upsurge in violence across Afghanistan with more than 200 suspected rebels killed in the past three months, according to US and Afghan officials.

Ludin said a suicide bombing at a mosque in the southern city of Kandahar on June 1, which killed 20 people, and the attempted shooting of the American aircraft on the same day were linked and aimed “to create maximum effect … maximum shock among the people.”

“The remnants of the Taliban, al-Qaida elements … have chosen this time to obviously set a plot in motion,” he said. “They may have gathered all their resources.”

Last week, the governor of Kandahar said the suicide attacker was an Arab al-Qaida member and cited an intelligence report indicating that teams from the terror network had entered Afghanistan to launch assaults.

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

Ludin said Afghan security forces were working closely with coalition and NATO-led international forces to safeguard the elections. But he called for cooperation from his country’s neighbours – a comment apparently aimed at encouraging Pakistan to secure its side of the border the two nations share.