Taliban steps up attacks as Afghan legislative polls approach

Though the Taliban said not to target polling stations on the election day, the militants have begun intensifying their attacks against Afghan and US military interests as the date for the key Afghan parliamentary elections is drawing closer.

In a series of attacks on Sunday, remnants of the former fundamentalist regime executed six persons including four American soldiers and two Afghans including a pro-government religious leader and wounded five others in the troubled southern region.

Taliban's spokesman Mullah Abdul Latif Hakimi, according to local media reports, announced Sunday that keeping in mind common people, the movement's fighters would not raid polling stations on the voting day.

The surprising announcement was equally welcomed by Afghan and US military as Afghan ministries for defense and interior have termed it a positive step and hoped for a peaceful environment during the historic election.

"It is in the best interest of Afghan people if the election is held in a peaceful environment. A peaceful election is a success of the Afghan people," US military spokesperson Cindy Moore said in response to Taliban's unexpected announcement.

However, she in a tit-for-tat response emphasized that the coalition troops, "will take the fight to the enemy with the election and beyond."

Earlier, Taliban's spokesman Hakimi asserted that the " Mujahideen or holy warriors would continue their holy war before election and beyond that until the US-dominated foreign troops withdraw from Afghanistan."

Their comments came amid increasing insurgency and bloody clashes between militants and US-Afghan troops in the volatile southern and eastern regions as over 100 rebels, according to US military, have been killed over the past couples of weeks.

"In the operations in the vicinity of Deh Chopan, Zabul province, approximately 65 enemy combatants were killed. Over 40 enemy combatants were killed in Kunar province as Afghan and coalition forces relentlessly sought out enemy combatants, US military spokesperson Cindy Moore told journalists Monday.

However, she declined to comment on Afghan and US soldiers' casualties.

Taliban, who describes Afghans working for the American military or firms as a "legitimate target" shot dead a man on charge of spying for the US military in southern Ghazni province last weekend.

"Whoever spies for Americans will be sentenced this way," Taliban's spokesman

Hakimi warned while accepting responsibility for the frightening attack.

In a similar attack, the radical group eliminated two more men on the same charge in Ghazni province late last week.

The bloody incident followed the assassination of former Taliban commander Karim Qarabaghi, a candidate for the coming Afghan parliamentary polls on Friday.

Unknown assailants in a blood of pool killed Karim, who abandoned Taliban after the collapse of the regime, on broad daylight while the attackers have yet to be identified.

A bloody insurgency has been going over the past two months in the eastern Kunar province during which over 25 US servicemen have been killed. The militants also shot down a US military helicopter late last June and all 16 aboard were killed.

To wipe out the militants, the US and Afghan forces launched a big crackdown against militants in the Korengal valley of Kunar province 12 days ago but have yet to dislodge militants from the valley and establish control there.

Taliban who failed to derail the last year's Afghan presidential elections, in its attempt to sabotage the coming parliamentary polls in the post-Taliban central Asian state, has targeted eight voters registration sites besides killing and injuring two candidates and two elections workers over the past three months.

Taliban's chief Mullah Mohammad Omar, who termed the elections as a "toll to legitimize the US occupation of Afghanistan," has called upon his loyalists to disrupt the process by any possible means.

Afghans eligible to vote are going to elect their representatives to the 249-seat Parliament on Sept. 18 amid tight security provided by the Afghan government, NATO and US-led coalition forces.

Downplaying Taliban's threat, US ambassador to Afghanistan Ronald Neumann foresaw peaceful elections for the Afghans and urged the Afghan people to use their franchise widely.

"We have more Afghan police, more Afghan army, more American army, more international forces. I believe we will have a secure elections," ambassador Neumann emphasized.

Source: Xinhua