AFGHANISTAN: At least four Afghan policemen were killed and the driver of a former official beheaded in attacks in the troubled southern province of Zabul, a police official said yesterday.
Just 12 days before a landmark election, police clashed with suspected guerrillas from the ousted Taliban in a four-hour gun battle in Nawbahar district, Col Jailani Khan said.
Four policemen were killed and two wounded, while two insurgents died and two were arrested, he added.
Taliban commander Borjan Niazi said seven policemen died in the fighting. He denied there were any Taliban casualties.
In Zabul's Shen Gharo district, the driver of a former provincial governor was beheaded and his corpse left by the side of the road late on Monday, Col Khan said.
More than 1,000 people have been killed since August last year in violence linked mostly to remnants of the Taliban, toppled from power in a US-led war for failing to hand over al-Qaeda chief, Osama bin Laden, after the September 11th, 2001, attacks. Most of the 18 candidates for president have called for the October 9th poll to be delayed until security improves. However, President Hamid Karzai, who is overwhelming favourite to keep his job, has said the vote will take place on schedule.
Meanwhile, militant groups seeking to disrupt Afghanistan's historic poll have issued threats against Afghan refugees in Pakistan to stop them from voting, organisers said yesterday.
Election workers, operating under the auspices of the International Organisation for Migration, a UN affiliate, said they had also received threats.
"There have been threats to both our staff and potential voters by small groups who wish to disrupt the elections," Mr Peter Erben, head of the registration process for refugee voters in Pakistan and Iran, told a news conference in Islamabad.
Potential voters among refugees in Pakistan and Iran could account for close to 10 per cent of the electorate.
Remnants of the Taliban militia have waged a campaign of violence to try to spoil the election. "We take all these threats very seriously," Mr Erben said, but he added they had not had a major impact on operations.
No accurate numbers are available for the refugees in Pakistan and Iran, where millions fled to escape the Soviet occupation of the 1980s, and the subsequent civil wars and Taliban rule.
Mr Erben said between 600,000 to 800,000 refugees may to turn out for the election in Pakistan and another 400,000 to 600,000 in Iran.