The Afghan elections are delayed in Kandahar after the Taliban attack
The Afghan elections are delayed in Kandahar after the Taliban attack
KABUL. As the body of one of Afghanistan's most acclaimed anti-Baghdad fighters landed on Friday in the southern city of Kandahar, the implications of his murder It reverberated throughout the country, deepening the sense of political uncertainty.
Afghan officials announced that vote in parliamentary elections the game for Saturday would be postponed for a week in the province of Kandahar, where the revered and controversial general Abdul Raziq acted as chief of police. He and the provincial intelligence chief were killed on Thursday by a uniformed bodyguard of the provincial governor believed to be acting on behalf of the insurgents fighting the Kabul government, Afghan security officials said.
The decision to delay elections in the richest and most politically influential province of southern Afghanistan came during a meeting of President Ashraf Ghani and his top security officials and showed how dangerous the situation is in the country after more than 17 years of war.
In a statement issued by the presidential palace, Mr. Ghani said that the decision was made to "improve the security of the country."
The vote will be carried out as scheduled on Saturday in other parts of the country, although even before the voting starts, it will be significantly reduced. Outside concern about the threat posed by the Taliban and the local branch of the Islamic State, voting has already been canceled in the province of Ghazni, in eastern Afghanistan, and almost a third of the 7,384 planned polling stations will not be open. According to the Afghan authorities, at least 10 candidates for the parliament and more than 200 more have been killed in acts of violence related to the elections.
The Taliban, which branded Saturday's elections as un-Islamic and vowed to halt the vote, issued a new warning to Afghans on Friday not to participate in the election, seen as a warm-up for the crucial presidential elections scheduled for April.
In a statement, they urged Afghan voters to stay at home and said they would close the "main and secondary" roads and that they would be "closely monitoring all events."
In the city of Kandahar, Javid Faisal, a parliamentary candidate, described an atmosphere of shock and pain. He said the city was closed for the funeral of General Raziq and that his death damaged morale not only in the second largest city in Afghanistan, but throughout the country.
"The Afghans are sad and worried because their loss leaves us without a strong fortress against the terrorists and enemies of Afghanistan," said Faisal.
A policeman in Kabul is looking for a man at a checkpoint before the parliamentary elections this weekend.
Photo:
Rahmat Gul / Associated Press
The voter turnout for Saturday's election, which has been postponed three times for security reasons and is delayed 3 and a half years, was expected to be much lower than the 8.8 million officially registered people, both by vote of the Taliban to attack the vote as if only a fraction of those eligible to vote in most countries do so.
Still, despite the deployment of some 54,000 Afghan security forces to protect polling stations across the country, Mr. Faisal predicted that General Raziq's death would discourage some voters from voting in Saturday's elections.
More details about the deadly attack on the provincial governor's compound in the city of Kandahar emerged on Friday.
After a meeting on security preparations for Saturday's elections, Afghan and US officials, including Army General Scott Miller, commander of the US-led coalition forces in Afghanistan, gathered for a group photo when Shots were fired inside the compound, the Associated Press reported, citing one of their cameramen who was present at the scene.
According to coalition spokesman, Army Colonel David Butler, General Miller, who escaped unharmed, and Afghan officials were grouped in small groups when the attacker fired on General Raziq and then appeared to spray the area with gunfire before they will kill him.
When US participants in the meeting rushed to their helicopter, a gun battle broke out between members of the US service and Afghan police when they tried to stop the Americans from reaching their helicopter, the news agency's cameraman said.
In addition to the deaths of Gen. Raziq and the spies chief of Kandahar province, Abdul Momin, the governor of the province, Zalmai Wesa, and the regional army commander, Nabi Elham, were seriously injured and taken to a hospital, they said. Afghan officials. Three US servicemen were injured, none seriously, according to the United States Army.
In describing General Razig as "barbaric", a reference to the frequent denunciations of human rights abuses reported by critics and international human rights groups, the Taliban took responsibility for the attack, but did not provide evidence. A Taliban spokesman said General Miller was a target, an accusation denied by an official at the US embassy.
Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, in Singapore to meet with the heads of regional defenseHe called General Raziq's death a "tragic loss" for Afghanistan, but said the attack would have no long-term effects on the security situation in Afghanistan or on the way US commanders advance in the countryside. of battle.
"We will continue to defend the Afghan people," Mattis told reporters traveling with him. "I have seen the maturation of the Afghan security forces and it is a tragic loss of a patriot for Afghanistan, but I do not see that it has any long-term effects on the Kandahar area."
Bill Roggio, principal investigator of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies of the group of experts, said that the death of General Raziq poses risks to stability in southern Afghanistan, especially at a time of great political unrest.
"Raziq was the glue that kept security in Kandahar together," Roggio said. "It is very likely that security in the province will deteriorate in Kandahar and in the south of the country. His death leaves a void that will not be easily filled. "
The fact that General Raziq was killed in an internal attack also provoked shudders through the multimillion dollar effort of the US military to train and help Afghan security forces to assume responsibility for the defense of the country.
While internal attacks, whether afghans against Afghans or against foreign forces, have declined in recent years due to actions taken by US military officials and Afghan authorities, they have a devastating psychological and practical cost, according to Mr. Roggio .
"It will be difficult to organize meetings between the officers and officers of the United States and Afghanistan, and it is likely that the United States will insist that Afghan bodyguards be disarmed before the meetings. "This can be highly insulting to the Afghan hosts, and the trust deficit between the two allies will increase," he said.
-Nancy Youssef in Singapore contributed to this article.
Write to Craig Nelson in craig.nelson@wsj.com
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