Suspected Taliban militants stormed a bank in central Kabul today, battling police for hours with rifles and hand grenades, on the eve of Afghanistan's presidential election.
A Taliban spokesman said the attack was carried out by five of its fighters wearing suicide vests, part of a contingent of 20 militants who had entered Kabul. Officials initially said the men were robbers but later described them as "terrorists".
Police took back the building, killing three occupiers, whose bodies were shown to reporters. The attacks came a day after eight people, including a Nato soldier, were killed in a suicide bomb attack on a military convoy in the Afghan capital.
The Afghan government and its Nato allies are urgently trying to minimise violence and disruption ahead of tomorrow's election, in which Hamid Karzai, the incumbent and favourite, faces around three dozen challengers.
Taliban commanders have ordered insurgents to spread across the country to undermine the election by threatening villagers in rural areas with violence, such as cutting off their fingers, if they are stained with the indelible ink used to mark voters.
In a statement today, the Taliban said its forces were closing roads around the country. "From today onwards until the end of tomorrow, all main and secondary roads will be blocked for traffic and the mujahideen will bear no responsibility for whoever gets hurt," it said, according to Reuters.
Militants have also stepped up direct attacks in Kabul. Yesterday, rockets were fired at the presidential palace, and at the weekend a suicide attack targeted the Nato headquarters in the city.
Nato commanders in Afghanistan announced yesterday that foreign troops in the country would call a halt to offensive operations on election day and concentrate on protecting voters.
Afghanistan's government last night ordered journalists not to report incidents of violence during the election so as not to deter people from voting. Two decrees were issued, one from the foreign ministry banning all broadcasts of information about violence while polls were open, and the other from the interior ministry requiring reporters to keep away from the scene of any attacks.
Although the English version of the foreign ministry's decree spoke of a "request", the version in Dari, one of Afghanistan's official languages, said reporting on violence during the election would be "strictly forbidden".
"We have taken this decision in the national interest of Afghanistan in order to encourage people and raise their morale to come out and vote," Siamak Herawi, a spokesman for Karzai, told Reuters. "This decision will control the negative impact of the media. If something happens, this will prevent them from exaggerating it, so that people will not be frightened to come out and vote."
It was unclear how the government intended to enforce the ban and Rachel Reid, the Afghanistan researcher for Human Rights Watch, said freedom of expression was enshrined in the Afghan constitution.
The head of the Afghan Independent Journalists' Association (AIJA) said the decrees would not stop Afghan and foreign journalists from providing information to the public during the election period. "It shows the weakness of the government and we condemn such moves to deprive people from accessing news," Rahimullah Samander said.
The UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, has urged Afghans to vote, saying the election will "bring fresh vigour to the country's political life". Polls have shown Karzai well ahead with around 45% of support, with his former foreign minister, Abdullah Abdullah, in second place on around 25%. If Karzai fails to win 50% of the vote tomorrow he and the second-placed finisher will take part in a run-off vote in October.
original text found on www.guadian.co.uk