Gunmen shot dead five campaign workers for a candidate in Afghanistan’s parliamentary election next month, officials said on Sunday, another sign of rising insecurity as Washington prepares to review its war strategy.
The death of the five — from a group of 10 kidnapped in western Herat Province — was confirmed only hours after a candidate in the Sept. 18 poll from the same area, Haji Abdul Manan, was shot dead as he walked to a mosque to pray.
Manan was the fourth candidate to be killed. The rising toll drew a sharp condemnation from the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA).
“These killings constitute violent intimidation of all electoral candidates and their supporters,” said UNAMA, which is assisting with the election.
“This is unacceptable. UNAMA calls on the Afghan security forces to be on heightened vigilance over the coming weeks,” it said, adding those responsible must be brought to justice.
Poor security, particularly in Taliban strongholds in the south and east, already looms as the biggest challenge to the ballot, along with corruption and fraud.
On Sunday, the bullet-riddled bodies of five members of a group of 10 who had gone missing on Thursday were found dead on a mountainside in Herat, district chief Nisar Ahmad Popal said.
It was not clear who killed them, he said.
The campaign workers were supporters of Fawzia Gilani, an outspoken female candidate standing in next month’s poll. The other five had turned up unharmed.
Washington officials have said they are worried violence will lead to a poor voter turnout, especially in the mainly Pashtun south and east where the Taliban are strongest.
The poll for 249 seats in the lower house is also seen as a test of Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s credibility after a presidential vote marred by fraud last year.
While not running this time around, Karzai has sought to assert his independence from his Western backers at a time when they are urging him to do more to fight graft and mismanagement.
Obama’s administration fears corruption is boosting the Taliban-led insurgency and complicating efforts to strengthen central government control so that US and other foreign forces can begin drawing down from July next year.
Karzai in turn has not flinched from speaking out against issues that anger Afghans such as civilian casualties and private security firms. Karzai caught Washington by surprise this month when he decreed such firms had four months to disband.
The rising civilian and military toll also weighs heavily on Obama’s mind.
This month, a UN report found civilian casualties had risen 31 percent in the first six months of this year, though more than 75 percent of those were caused by insurgents.
But the problem remains very real for foreign troops. The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said on Sunday an assessment team had found rounds fired by an ISAF helicopter in northern Baghlan Province last week may have killed an unspecified number of civilians.
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