Taliban threaten voters in runoff
4 civilians die as US convoy fires on a van
KABUL - Taliban fighters warned Afghans yesterday not to take part in the war-wracked country’s upcoming presidential runoff, threatening to launch a fresh wave of violence on polling day to stop them.
The warnings were issued on the first official day of campaigning for the Nov. 7 contest. The insurgents denounced the race between President Hamid Karzai and his challenger, Abdullah Abdullah, as “a failed, American process’’ and said their fighters would “launch operations against the enemy and stop people from taking part.’’
The statement said Taliban militants will also cut off key roads and highways and warned that anyone who casts a ballot “will bear responsibility for their actions.’’
Taliban fighters killed dozens of civilians during the first round of voting Aug. 20, hitting several southern cities with rocket fire and cutting off the ink-stained fingers of at least two people who cast ballots in the militant-dominated south.
Attacks and fighting have continued amid the electoral crisis. Yesterday, NATO forces announced that two Americans and one military service member whose nationality was not disclosed had died in attacks in the south.
Meanwhile, US troops fired on a van approaching their convoy on the main highway in southern Kandahar Province, killing four civilians, according to provincial officials and the US military.
The dead included two women and one child, Kandahar’s governor said in a statement. Four others were wounded, the statement said.
The troops “tried repeatedly to signal the fast-approaching vehicle with passive measures, but fearing for their safety, fired on the vehicle,’’ said a US military spokesman, Lieutenant Junior Grade Tommy Groves.
NATO expressed its condolences to the families of those who died. Groves said that the shooting was being investigated and that the wounded had been given first aid and taken to a hospital.
A spokesman for Karzai said his campaign is concerned about a rise in violence during the runoff vote. He said, however, that there is no other legal option and ruled out any sort of negotiated power-sharing deal.
“The only legal way to have a legitimate future government is to have elections,’’ Waheed Omar said. “In our view, that is the only constitutional way of putting an end to the current crisis.’’
Omar said there is some hope of avoiding a repeat of the violence that marred the August vote, pointing to assurances from Afghan and international forces that they can provide enough security.
