Afghanistan to vote two days after assassinations
Taliban vows to disrupt parliamentary elections
KABUL, Afghanistan — The stakes in Saturday’s parliamentary elections in Afghanistan have never been higher, just two days after the Taliban assassinated two top provincial officials in an audacious attack on a security conference attended by the top U.S. military commander in the country.
The attack came as Washington is trying to find a peace deal that will allow the U.S. to draw down its forces and extricate itself from the 17-year war, the longest in American history.
On Friday, Afghanistan’s Independent Election Commission postponed polls in southern Kandahar province for one week in response to the attack that killed the powerful provincial police chief, Gen. Abdul Raziq, who was gunned down as participants wrapped up a daylong meeting to lay out security plans for Saturday’s elections. Gen. Scott Miller, the commander of U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan, escaped injury. His presence was indicative of the importance Washington places on a violence-free election, particularly in the country’s south and east, once the religious and political heartland of the Taliban before their 2001 ouster.
Raziq’s death deals a powerful blow to the Afghan government’s already-flagging war against a resurgent Taliban.
“The Americans found (Raziq) brutally effective against the Taliban,” said an analysis released Friday by the Brussels-based International Crisis Group, or ICG. “Raziq did not fight by the rules: the U.N. Committee Against Torture called for his prosecution last year after he was personally implicated in torture and extrajudicial killings.”
Raziq had escaped several assassination attempts, including one last year in which five diplomats from the United Arab Emirates were killed.
“Raziq’s death likely does the greatest damage to the morale of the Afghan security forces,” said the ICG analysis. “The Taliban now initiate roughly 90 percent of battles in the war, meaning that security personnel find themselves routinely on the defensive.”
The Taliban’s relentless show of force would also seem to give them greater leverage as the United States accelerates efforts to find a peaceful exit from the war, which has cost the nation more than 2,400 lives and over $900 billion.
The Kandahar attack underscores the harrowing insecurity in Afghanistan ahead of the elections. More than 50,000 Afghan National Security Forces personnel have been deployed to protect 21,000 polling stations.
The Taliban have vowed to disrupt Saturday’s vote.
Pakistan closed its two official border crossings with Afghanistan, the foreign ministry said. The development came at the request of the Afghan government, which routinely accuses Pakistan of harboring Taliban militants. The crossings were to remain closed Friday and Saturday.