More terror attacks expected when Afghan assembly meets

But the ceremony at a National Guard base, designed to highlight a critical, long-awaited step in the demilitarization of this struggling nation, occurred as US military and civilian officials in the region warned that they expect further terrorist attacks as a national constitutional assembly gets underway this week. The meeting, known as a loya jirga, is scheduled to open Saturday.

"Afghans are determined to have the loya jirga, but I anticipate increased efforts by [extremist] forces to disrupt it," US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad told journalists yesterday. Attacks may also take place along the highway from Kabul to Kandahar, which is being rebuilt largely with US funds, he added. "We want to take the offensive against them, to take the war to them."

This week, US-led forces launched a large military operation in eastern Afghanistan near the Pakistani border, where revived Taliban forces and other antigovernment insurgents have been active. Officials have given few details on the operation, other than to say it involves about 2,000 troops, some of whom were flown by helicopter into Khost Province near the border.

A US air assault Saturday aimed at killing a suspected Taliban terrorist in a village in Ghazni Province mistakenly killed nine children, drawing sharp criticism from UN officials. Both Khalilzad and a US military spokesman acknowledged yesterday that the attack may have missed its intended target, whom US officials initially reported killed.

Khalilzad said US military investigators are acting with "a clear sense of urgency" to determine what went wrong in the raid. Lieutenant Colonel Bryan Hilferty, the US military spokesman at Bagram air base, attributed the children's deaths to the "fog and friction of war."

In the past week, suspected Islamic guerrillas have shot a Pakistani highway engineer to death, kidnapped two Indian road workers and threatened to kill them, and wounded 20 people in a bombing in Kandahar. Most of the attacks have occurred along the southern portion of the highway, but spokesmen for the Taliban have also warned they will target anyone attending the loya jirga.

Hilferty, echoing Khalilzad's comments, said there was "specific intelligence" that further attacks might be coming and that they might target the loya jirga. The meeting site at Kabul University, which will house some 500 delegates for several weeks, is being heavily guarded by Afghan troops and international peacekeepers.

In addition to launching new military raids, Khalilzad said, US officials intend to counter recent Taliban inroads in southeastern Afghanistan by beefing up support for other initiatives. This "multipronged approach," he said, will include opening several secure reconstruction bases, assisting Afghan police training and administration, building roads, and expanding social service projects.

Yesterday's parade of 2,000 disarmed militiamen was significant because most were members of the Northern Alliance militia, a powerful ethnic faction that has been loyal to Defense Minister Mohammed Fahim rather than President Hamid Karzai. In a speech during the ceremony, Fahim praised the men for their sacrifices in combating the Soviet occupation and Taliban terrorism, but said it was time to turn a page of history and contribute as civilians to Afghanistan's rebuilding.