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Taliban threatens to attack Afghans who cast ballots

A top Taliban commander warned on Wednesday that Afghans who take part in elections this year will face attack, the first direct threat the guerrillas have issued to the UN-backed polls.

Mullah Dadullah, who is blamed for ordering the killing of a foreign Red Cross worker last year and a series of massacres during the Taliban's rule, warned Afghans not to vote in the poll due to be held in June.

"The people of Afghanistan must not participate in the election," he said after contacting reporters from an undisclosed location. "If they do, they will come under Taliban attack."

Dadullah is one of the most-trusted lieutenants of elusive Taliban supreme leader Mullah Mohammed Omar and a member of a 10-man leadership council set up last year. It was the second time in three days he had called reporters to issue a threat.

The Taliban threatened late last year to disrupt a loya jirga, or grand assembly, called to approve a constitution to pave the way for the elections.

The assembly was held successfully amid tight security, but guaranteeing safe polls will be a much taller order for the foreign peacekeepers and a US-led force based in Afghanistan.

Jean Arnault, the top UN official in Afghanistan, said he expected there to be threats against the elections, but pointed to the successful loya jirga.

"There were warnings issued by people claiming to belong to the Taliban ... These warnings in fact had very little impact," he told a news conference in Kabul.

In Washington, the State Department said security problems were complicating the organization of the elections and said it was open to delaying the poll if that was what the government wanted.

Voter registration has fallen behind schedule with only 1 million of the 10.5 million eligible voters listed and threats from the guerrillas are likely to hurt the effort, especially in southern provinces where they have mounted repeated attacks.

UN officials have already expressed concerns about registration in the south, especially of women in what are ultraconservative Islamic areas.

Dadullah reiterated a Taliban vow to target Muslims working for foreign aid agencies or assisting the US and threatened more suicide attacks against US soldiers and NATO-led peacekeepers.

"Everywhere there are US and ISAF [International Security Assistance Force] forces, we will do suicide attacks," he said.

"We will kill all those Muslims who are working with America and its 52 other non-Muslim allied countries," he said when asked why the Taliban was targeting Muslim aid workers.
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