Deadly Kabul suicide attack strikes ahead of key conference

KABUL, July 18, 2010 (AFP) - A suicide bomber on a bicycle struck a bustling street in the Afghan capital on Sunday, killing three people and wounding dozens more two days ahead of a major international conference.

NATO and Afghan security forces are stepping up security in Kabul to guard against possible attack in the lead-up to what has been billed the biggest international meeting in the city since the 2001 US-led invasion.

Sunday’s bombing was the deadliest suicide attack in the heavily fortified Afghan capital since May 18, when a bomber killed at least 18 people, including five US soldiers, in an attack on a NATO convoy.

The blast shattered windows, gutted nearby vehicles and left the street littered with body parts, said an AFP photographer.

Describing the powerful explosion witness Jawid Wardak said: "It was heavy, it shattered the windows of buildings on both sides of the road.

"I saw four or five people wounded. They were taken to hospital in civilian vehicles."

The government said a suicide bomber on a bicycle carried out the attack.

"He was trying to get to a specific area but because of high security the bomber was forced to detonate on a street where there is little activity," interior ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary told AFP.

The public health ministry said three people were killed and 35 wounded. A child was among the dead, ministry spokesman Kargar Norghli told AFP.

Kabul is to host a major gathering of its international partners — including US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and about 40 foreign ministers — on Tuesday, where the government will lay out is plan for the future.

Security forces have thrown a ring of steel around the city to head off any Taliban attacks, with police stationed every few metres (yards) along key streets and thousands of extra police officers on duty, authorities said.

Up to 70 international representatives are due to attend the conference, to be co-chaired by President Hamid Karzai and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

It has been presented as a bid by the Afghan government to start a process of transition from dependence on Western backers to running the country alone.

After the Taliban attacked a major peace conference in early June — which led to the dismissal of the interior minister and the head of the intelligence agency — authorities said they were taking no chances.

At least two rockets were fired as Karzai delivered his opening address. A suicide cell was later cornered and killed by security forces.

The government says it is "determined" to provide good security for the conference.

Bashary said "thousands" of police, soldiers and intelligence agents had been deployed "in vulnerable areas" to thwart any Taliban attack plans.

NATO’s civilian representative in Afghanistan, Mark Sedwill, said attacks on the conference cannot be ruled out.

"We have to prepare ourselves for the fact that the insurgents will try to disrupt it," Sedwill told reporters on Saturday.

Kabul’s airport is expected to be closed on Monday and Tuesday — perhaps longer — with most conference delegates arriving by private or government jet for just one day, a NATO official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Many staff with aid groups and embassies would spend the week in lockdown amid a raised security threat, charity workers, diplomats and others said.

NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said its troops, working with Afghan counterparts, had captured a Taliban activist implicated "in coordinating an attack" on the conference.

Two other "facilitators" were captured earlier in the week, it said.

NATO and the United States have almost 150,000 troops in Afghanistan, battling an insurgency now almost nine years old and intensifying as the foreign forces take the fight to the increasingly bold militants.

In London, the Independent on Sunday newspaper said delegates to this week’s conference would agree to hand over control of security in the country to Afghan forces by 2014.

Citing a leaked communique, it reported a phased transition beginning this year, along with pledges that foreign powers would continue to train, equip and finance Afghan security forces after that date.

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