Attack on convoy marks end of Afghan campaign

KABUL, Afghanistan – President Hamid Karzai’s running mate survived a bomb attack on his convoy Wednesday morning in northeast Afghanistan, on the last day of campaigning before the country’s first presidential election.

Ahmed Zia Massood, the brother of slain resistance leader and Afghan hero Ahmed Shah Massood, was not injured. But the bomb, apparently detonated by remote control, killed two and injured two, including the governor of Badakhshan province, said Hamid Elmi, spokesman for the campaign. The governor is expected to recover.

The attack happened in an area known for its drug trade but not known for insurgent attacks, which are more frequent in the south and southeast.

“The enemy is everywhere,” Elmi said. “Despite this attack, Ahmed Zia Massood will continue.”

Insurgents and remnants of the Taliban have vowed to disrupt Afghanistan’s first presidential elections Saturday. In recent weeks, they have not mounted a major attack. But the U.S. Embassy still warned that the threat of attacks before the election is high and urged extreme caution.

Just before the attack, Karzai ignored security concerns and held a rare campaign rally in Kabul in front of about 5,000 people at the sports stadium. The event marked the start of a day filled with more campaign activity in Kabul than was seen throughout the entire campaign. There were rallies and endorsements. Two of the lesser known of the 18 candidates announced their support for Karzai. So did Ahmed Zia Massood’s brother, who was long considered a supporter of a Karzai rival.

Hours after Karzai held his rally, supporters of candidate Abdul Rashid Dostum pasted up his posters over Karzai’s and held their own rally in the stadium. A singer performed a song about how the Uzbek warlord, who is known for countless atrocities, cured the pains of his people. Dostum gave a speech referring to himself in the third person and hopped onto a horse at the end of his speech.

“Gen. Dostum is not the lover of infidels,” Dostum told about 2,000 people. “Gen. Dostum does not want the separation of this country.”

At Karzai’s rally, people yelled, “Long live Karzai.” They stood in the same stadium used by the Taliban years earlier to cut off the heads and hands of people who disobeyed.

Unlike Dostum, who talked about his past role as a fighter, Karzai talked about the future.

“God, bring a day that our president should not go outside the country and beg anymore,” Karzai said. “God, bring a day where Afghanistan will be able to send security forces to other nations.”

He told people they should not feel pressured to vote for him, that they should vote for whom they wanted.

Several in the crowd said they had come on their own, but others said buses picked them up at their universities. Security was tight, with U.S. and Afghan bodyguards wary of any movement. Journalists were kept inside a makeshift pen marked by caution tape. They were told not to interview people in the crowd until after Karzai spoke.

The president is always surrounded by tight security and rarely leaves his palace. A trip to Ghazni on Tuesday was his first official campaign rally. On Wednesday, Karzai countered the assumption that he was almost a prisoner in his home. He said the attacks have not caused much concern.

“I was in Ghazni yesterday,” he said. “And I enjoyed it.”

But the bomb in Badakhshan, outside the town of Faizabad, is the third attempt to kill Karzai or his supporters in the past three weeks. A rocket was fired at a helicopter carrying Karzai to Gardez; it missed but forced Karzai to return home. Four days later, a convoy carrying one of Karzai’s vice presidents was bombed in northern Afghanistan.