Afghanistan Hit by Attacks Ahead of Election

KABUL, Afghanistan — An apparent suicide car bombing and two explosions rocked Kabul on Tuesday, and a suicide bomber killed three soldiers in the south of the country in what seemed further indications of Afghanistan’s precarious security situation just days before elections on Thursday.
Black smoke rose from the road linking Kabul with the eastern city of Jalalabad after suicide car bomber attacked a convoy of foreign troops there, Reuters reported.
Citing unidentified Afghan officials, The Associated Press reported that three civilians had been killed in that attack and that several vehicles had been set ablaze.
Earlier two projectiles struck an area near the presidential palace, but there were no immediate reports of death or injuries.
“We understand that two mortars or rockets — as we call it, indirect fire — hit somewhere in the vicinity of the presidential palace and the Ministry of Defense,” said Capt. Elizabeth Mathias, a spokeswoman for the U.S. military.
The deputy presidential spokesman, Hamid Elmi, who spoke to The Associated Press, said the palace was not seriously damaged and President Hamid Karzai had not been hurt.
In an another attack Tuesday morning, in Uruzgan Province, in southern Afghanistan, a suicide bomber walked up to an Afghan National Army checkpoint and detonated his explosive vest, killing three soldiers and two civilians, according to the provincial police chief, Juma Gul Himat.
In recent weeks, American and NATO forces have been moving against the Taliban, mounting a major offensive in southern Helmand province designed to thwart an insurgent threat to disrupt the elections
But NATO forces said Tuesday they would suspend offensive operations on election day, deploying coalition and Afghan troops to protect voters, election monitors and polling stations.
“In support of the Afghan National Security Forces who lead the security efforts during the electoral process, only those operations that are deemed necessary to protect the population will be conducted on that day,” the NATO-led coalition said in a statement.
The Afghan government had earlier called for a truce during Thursday’s voting.
Mr. Karzai, who is running for re-election to a second five-year term, said his principal goal is to bring peace and security to the country and has promised to double the size of the Afghan police and army by the end of his next term.
But violence has been increasing and the security situation from Kabul to the provinces remains tense and fragile.
In southern and eastern Afghanistan, in the heavily Pashtun areas where the reach of the Taliban is particularly strong, many Afghans have been unable to register to vote. Some places in the grip of the insurgency will have no polling stations at all.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for a bombing of NATO headquarters in Kabul last Saturday. A suicide car bomber struck the front gate of the NATO compound, where the top U.S. commander, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, is based. Seven people were killed and 91 wounded.
Nine days ago, Taliban gunmen and suicide bombers seized a five-story building in Pul-e-Alam, the capital of Logar Province, south of Kabul. The militants battled Afghan and U.S. troops for several hours in a firefight that left at least four people dead.