U.S. reports new terrorism cell in Kabul

KABUL, Afghanistan – A suicide bomber assassinated a provincial governor on Sunday and the U.S. military warned a terrorism cell has set up in the Afghan capital to target foreign troops.

In the south, NATO said it had killed at least 94 Taliban fighters in airstrikes and ground attacks, pushing the reported toll from a nine-day counterinsurgency operation past 420. A top local official said the battle was winding down, and residents said hundreds of militants had fled the area.

The wave of violence, on the eve of the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks on America, has cast a grim shadow over Afghanistan. The insurgency-wracked country is locked into its worst bout of fighting since the U.S.-led ouster of the hard-line Taliban regime in late 2001 for hosting Osama bin Laden.

A purported Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility for the assassination of eastern Paktia province Gov. Abdul Hakim Taniwal outside his office in the town of Gardez at lunchtime Sunday. He was a former federal minister.

A man with explosives strapped to his body ran toward Taniwal’s car and blew himself up, also killing Taniwal’s nephew and bodyguard and wounding three police, U.S. and Afghan officials said.

The U.S. military, meanwhile, said a suicide bombing cell was operating in Kabul, with the aim of targeting foreign troops. It was another sign that Afghan insurgents have adopted some of the terror tactics used in Iraq and are expanding their operations beyond the volatile south and east.

The warning came two days after a car bomber rammed into a U.S. Army convoy near the U.S. Embassy, killing 16 people, including two American soldiers, in the worst such attack in the capital. Four days earlier, another suicide bomber in Kabul hit a British military convoy, killing one soldier and four Afghans.

“This cell is alive and working and remains very much a threat,” Col. Tom Collins, the chief U.S. spokesman, told a news conference in Kabul. “Even though international forces may be the target, as we saw on Friday, the vast majority of victims are civilians.”

Collins said the coalition had intelligence that a bomber was in the city before Friday’s attack, but lacked a description of the attacker or the vehicle he was using.

“Somehow I believe somewhere out there someone knew this guy and had information that could have saved a lot of lives that day had they reported it,” he said.

In the south, where NATO says its Operation Medusa has killed more than 420 Taliban near Kandahar city since Sept. 2, residents said hundreds of Taliban had fled the area. Kandahar Gov. Asadullah Khalid said the fighting was nearing a close and Taliban militants were in flight.

Residents said the fighters escaped late Saturday from Panjwayi and Zhari districts toward Arghandab and Maiwand districts. Others had ditched their weapons and were merging back among the population in Kandahar city, about 15 miles to the east.

But NATO spokesman Maj. Scott Lundy said it was too early for thousands of displaced villagers to return to their homes – believed badly damaged by bombing. He said operations would continue in Panjwayi until “we are certain the Taliban have been pushed out of the area for good and for all.”

Qari Yousaf Ahmadi, who also claims to speak for the Taliban, confirmed that most of its militants had left from Panjwayi and Zhari in a tactical move. He did not say where they had gone.