Kabul rocked by violence on eve of presidential poll

With voting set to commence tomorrow in Afghanistan's presidential election, the Taliban has increased their activity over the last 24 hours with the aim of causing the maximum possible disruption to the poll. Meanwhile the Afghan government of Hamid Karzai has called on journalists not to report any violence that does occur, fearing that it will discourage people from voting.

This morning the insurgents raided a bank in central Kabul which is only a few hundred metres from President Karzai's palace compound. Police killed three of the suspected Taliban in retaking the building and are still searching for gunmen in the Afghan capital. The Taliban have warned people against voting in the poll, threatening to cut off the fingers or slit the throats of anyone who does so.

Yesterday a massive suicide car bomb was set off alongside a convoy of Nato military vehicles in the eastern part of Kabul, killing ten people including a Nato soldier and two Afghan election officials. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, which took place near to the British Army base in Kabul. Hours earlier mortars had also been launched at the presidential palace too, the first time that weapon has been used by the Taliban in the capital.

Afghan journalists were called before yesterday's suicide bomb attack and told that the Taliban were going to intensify their attacks on targets relating to the election, stating that “the Mujaheddin should carry out their operations as we have planned” and warning Afghan voters that they were responsible for whatever should befall them.

There were also attacks across the country yesterday, as the insurgents sought to continue their campaign of intimidation. Three poll workers died in Badakhshan after their car hit a roadside bomb, and an election candidate in the north was also shot and killed in Jowzjan province. Elsewhere a suicide bomber killed five people, including three Afghan soldiers, in southern Uruzgan, and two American troops died when an IED (improvised explosive device) went off in the east of the country. ·