Fierce fighting with suspected Taliban rebels left nine militants and three policemen dead, officials said yesterday -- the eve of landmark Afghan elections that many hope will marginalize insurgents and bolster a fragile democracy.
Security forces also said they had thwarted four massive militant bombings, including a plan to blow up a large dam, underscoring security fears for today's vote.
The violence came a day after the Taliban called for a boycott of the polls. They said they would not attack civilians going to vote, but would target areas where US-led coalition forces were deployed -- and advised people to avoid such places.
PHOTO: EPA
About 100,000 Afghan police and soldiers and 30,000 foreign troops are on alert across the country to safeguard today's polls. In Kabul, road checkpoints have sprung up, with police pulling over vehicles ranging from hay carts to ribbon-decked wedding cars.
In Kandahar, all vehicles were banned from driving inside the city after midday yesterday due to fears the militants will use car bombs.
In an unusually brazen attack on the outskirts of the capital, Kabul, militants ambushed a security patrol, killing a district police chief and two officers, Interior Ministry spokesman Luftullah Mashal said.
"This is the first attack so close to Kabul that we have seen in a long time," he said. "The Taliban and al-Qaeda are trying their best to create problems."
Guerrillas also ambushed a police patrol on the main highway linking Kabul with the southern city of Kandahar, triggering a gunbattle that left seven militants dead, said Gulam Rasool, a government chief in Sharisafar district.
An insurgent rocket slammed into a police car, setting it on fire, but all the officers inside escaped, he said.
Two Taliban rebels were also killed during fighting in Kandahar Province on Thursday, according to a defense ministry statement. Eight suspected rebels were arrested, it said.
In another attack in Kandahar, rebels used a roadside bomb to attack a police chief as he was driving. It blew up his vehicle, but all inside survived with minor injuries, officials said.
Mashal said the intended targets of the three thwarted bombings weren't immediately clear.
Police in eastern Kunar Province detained two Pakistanis, suspected to be Taliban members, armed with 20kg of explosives.
Also, soldiers at a checkpoint in central Ghazni Province stopped a vehicle with C-4 high explosive hidden under its seats. A second car bomb was found in eastern Paktika Province when security forces discovered 300kg of explosives in the back of a pickup truck.
EUROPEAN TARGETS: The planned Munich center would support TSMC’s European customers to design high-performance, energy-efficient chips, an executive said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said that it plans to launch a new research-and-development (R&D) center in Munich, Germany, next quarter to assist customers with chip design. TSMC Europe president Paul de Bot made the announcement during a technology symposium in Amsterdam on Tuesday, the chipmaker said. The new Munich center would be the firm’s first chip designing center in Europe, it said. The chipmaker has set up a major R&D center at its base of operations in Hsinchu and plans to create a new one in the US to provide services for major US customers,
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
BEIJING’S ‘PAWN’: ‘We, as Chinese, should never forget our roots, history, culture,’ Want Want Holdings general manager Tsai Wang-ting said at a summit in China The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday condemned Want Want China Times Media Group (旺旺中時媒體集團) for making comments at the Cross-Strait Chinese Culture Summit that it said have damaged Taiwan’s sovereignty, adding that it would investigate if the group had colluded with China in the matter and contravened cross-strait regulations. The council issued a statement after Want Want Holdings (旺旺集團有限公司) general manager Tsai Wang-ting (蔡旺庭), the third son of the group’s founder, Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明), said at the summit last week that the group originated in “Chinese Taiwan,” and has developed and prospered in “the motherland.” “We, as Chinese, should never
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying
RSS