Taliban attacks on both sides of the AfPak border

KABUL, Afghanistan — The Taliban here and in Pakistan have dramatically stepped up their attacks on two fronts.

In Peshawar, Pakistan, a car bomb killed at least 80 people, the latest in a series of militant strikes in answer to the Pakistani Army’s offensive against Taliban strongholds in South Waziristan, on the border with Afghanistan. The attack came just hours after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in the country.

Here in Kabul, at least six U.N. staffers were killed and another nine injured in Kabul on Wednesday as the Taliban made good on threats to wreak havoc in the days before the run-off election for the presidency scheduled for Nov. 7. In addition to the attack on the U.N., insurgents fired at least three mortar rounds, targeting the presidential palace and a five-star hotel popular with election workers and diplomats.

The double-barreled strikes send a strong message that the Taliban are on the move on both sides of the region’s troubled border.

The Kabul attacks began shortly after 6:00 a.m., when three suicide bombers armed with machine guns stormed a compound housing staffers from UNDP-Elect, the UN Development Program mission charged with supporting the Afghan elections.

According to various reports, the men were dressed in Afghan national police uniforms, and killed a guard outside before gaining entry to the compound. Official police reports say that one of the attackers detonated his vest directly inside the compound, killing or wounding the remaining three guards.

Sources within the Interior Ministry say that the attackers had free rein within the guest house for several minutes before an Afghan Quick Reaction Force arrived.

A two-hour gun battle then ensued, in which the remaining two attackers killed themselves by exploding their suicide vests. Three international U.N. staffers were shot, and an additional three were killed when the final attacker detonated his vest, which was loaded with deadly ball-bearings.

An Afghan civilian was also caught in the crossfire, according to police reports, bringing the death total to 12.

The U.S. Embassy has confirmed that one of the staffers killed was an American citizen. The nationalities of the others have not yet been released.

Approximately 20 UN employees lived in the guest house according to UN sources who did not want to be named. Media reports say that some managed to escape during the mayhem, jumping out of windows or climbing out over the roof.

The attack occurred in the very heart of the city, a neighborhood called Shahr-e-Naw, giving rise to fears that the Taliban were now able to operate anywhere within the capital.

At the Kabul Serena Hotel, close to the presidential palace in another downtown quarter, two mortar rounds landed in the garden at approximately 8:30. Alarms went off throughout the hotel, and the entire first floor area filled with acrid smoke. No casualties were reported, but security guards herded guests into a basement room until they were certain the attacks had stopped.

“Two incendiary devices were fired at the Serena and two at the presidential palace,” said a security official, who did not identify himself by name, addressing the approximately 100 people assembled in the bunker. “Thank God nobody was hurt.”

The attacks shocked a city that is now preparing for a second round of elections in Afghanistan’s troubled presidential poll.

The first round, on Aug. 20, was badly marred by fraud. Incumbent President Hamid Karzai claimed victory, but an audit by the U.N.-backed Electoral Complaints Commission determined that close to 1 million of his votes were suspect, and ordered the election commission to nullify them. The adjusted tally put him below the 50-percent-plus-one threshold needed to avoid a runoff.

The Taliban have warned the population not to participate in the new poll, saying that they would use any means at their disposal to disrupt the vote.

“The Mujaheddin of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan have worked out programs to foil and prevent this [election] process,” read a statement issued by the Taliban on October 25. “[We] closely monitor all workers, officials and voters … Everyone is responsible for the harm he sustains as a result of his participation in the elections. The Mujaheddin have repeatedly warned the people and announced their program of action.”

It appears that they were not making idle threats: Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahed immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks.

“These attacks are part of a series ordered some days ago by the Taliban leadership,” he said in a statement released on the Taliban website. “These attacks will continue. We will prevent this second round of elections.”

The United Nations struggled to come to grips with their losses, the worst they have suffered since the fall of the Taliban in 2001.

“This is a very dark day for the U.N. in Afghanistan,” said U.N. Special Representative.
Kai Eide, in a statement released to the press Wednesday morning. “This attack will not deter the U.N. from continuing all its work to reconstruct a war torn country and to build a better future for all Afghans.”

Eide said that the U.N. would review its security measures in place to ensure that all appropriate action was being taken to protect its staff.

But even before the smoke had cleared, questions were being raised about whether or not the U.N. should have been more prepared. The Taliban had made no secret of its intention to target the elections, and the choice of UNDP-Elect sent a clear message that anyone associated with the poll could expect reprisals.

“We chose this guest house because it houses those who will manage the second round,” said Mujahed in his official statement. “There are also a lot of election workers at the Serena Hotel.”

In advance of the August elections, the U.N. required all non-essential personnel to leave the country. Many U.N. staffers were wondering why similar measures were not taken this time around.

“We asked about additional security at the last meeting of U.N. chiefs,” said the head of one U.N. agency, who could not speak on the record because of the sensitivity of the issue. “Kai Eide said that it would send the wrong message politically.”

Many, including the former Deputy Special Representative Peter Galbraith, have accused Eide of being partial to the Afghan president, and of willfully ignoring realities on the ground in favor of political expediency.

But U.N. spokesperson Aleem Siddique called this “nonsense.”

“We keep our security measures under review,” he said. “The safety of our staff is of paramount importance to us. I think it is inappropriate to get into a blame game in the immediate aftermath of this incident.”

The UN staffer disagreed.

“It is Kai’s tendency to look at Afghanistan through rose-tinted glasses,” he fumed. “But he is playing with our safety, with our lives.”

(Jean MacKenzie reports from Kabul for GlobalPost and was an eyewitness to the attack at the Serena hotel. Reporting from Pakistan for this story relied in part on Reuters and the BBC.)