Climate of insecurity and attacks on the eve of elections in Afghanistan

Kabul, 18 Aug 2009. - Just two days after the presidential elections, the Afghan Taliban back to act today with two suicide bombings that killed at least a dozen deaths and a rocket attack on the Presidential Palace in Kabul, a city on alert and completely taken by the security forces.
The most serious attack took place on the dangerous road leading Jalalabad (east) from Kabul, a frequent target of insurgents because at the exit of the capital are several barracks of U.S. troops and ISAF.
The bomber threw his car into a military convoy of the ISAF, killing seven people and wounded other forty, according to official sources in Afghanistan.
But in a statement, NATO said the last information available "indicates that among the dead soldier of ISAF, seven Afghan civilians and two Afghan employees of the UN mission in Afghanistan", the latter data confirmed by the United Nations.
ISAF also increased the number of injured to 55, including two NATO military.
The attack was condemned by Afghan President Hamid Karzai, hours after two rockets fell near his palace without causing casualties.
And, according to a police source consulted by Efe, another suicide attack claimed the lives of two civilians and three Afghan soldiers and wounded five other people in the central-southern Uruzgan, where the Taliban have a strong presence.
This month there have been several attacks and rockets fired from the outskirts on Kabul, a relatively isolated city of armed conflict and where people still remember the martyrdom to which they were subjected during the civil war in the 1990s and live almost daily with attacks.
Attacks like today against ISAF convoy and other military installations or headquarters official charged whenever a majority of casualties among civilians in the vicinity.
On the eve of elections, Kabul is taken by thousands of army soldiers, police and private security guards armed with "Kalashnikov" or machine guns to protect important buildings.
The embassy area with successive passage controls and strategic buildings are walled with thick barbed wire and concrete blocks to protect themselves from attacks by the Taliban, who have demonstrated their ability to hit l to city.
"Security said Efe the chief of the Afghan secret service, Amrullah Saleh-like bread. A well you need without ceasing. Will forever be our concern and we will need is a good time. Our actions and efforts will not stop after the elections. "
The massive presence of security forces has not dented the perception of Afghans: According to a recent study by the American Institute IRI, security is one of the two main problems in Afghanistan for 56 percent of citizens polled, 21 points above the economic situation.
"I have it (the gun) for safety. Here in Kabul there are constant robberies and kidnappings, "says Efe a 22 year old Tajik concerned about rising crime, while wielding a Beretta 9 mm Italian Parabellum inside a car.
According to various reports, the Afghan roads are infested with bandits who ambush truckers and travelers, without being clear on many occasions the border separating the insurgent Taliban common criminal.
"I'm not sure, of course not. Police are not active and has no equipment to solve problems. Kidnappings and robberies are perpetrated by people Kabul in uniform. Corruption is one hundred percent, "says Mohammad Nader businessman in the capital district of Makroyan.
Before the Taliban threat and climate of generalized insecurity, foreign embassies in Kabul rush to advise its citizens to take precautions, especially during the election period.
"We should leave just enough, so dress to not draw attention, less elegantly as possible. The alert level is permanent and should not lower our guard, "said Efe a diplomatic source.
In Afghanistan there are about 100,000 police, but most are poorly trained and equipped, low paid and barely have adequate infrastructure, exposed Efe a spokesman for the EU police mission in Afghanistan (EUPOL), Andrea Angeli.
Only in the capital, there are about 8,500 agents in charge of keeping order, but according to Angeli are much more accurate in a city plagued by robberies and kidnappings, with foreign employers and main objectives.

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