Gunmen attack Afghan capital on poll eve

Armed gunmen were holed up in a bank building in the Afghan capital on Wednesday after what the Taliban said was an attack on a government target, but what police said was a robbery gone wrong.

Explosions and gunfire could be heard from the building, just a few hundred metres (yards) from the presidential palace compound, a Reuters witness said.

A Taliban spokesman said gunmen had launched an attack in central Kabul on the eve of presidential elections, but police said they were common criminals escaping arrest.

"We do not know who they are. They could be criminals or terrorists," Interior Ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary told Reuters. "Our operation is under way and we are trying to capture them alive."

Taliban militants have vowed to disrupt the elections, which come against a big increase in violence by the hardline Islamist group ousted in 2001 in the wake of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

A suicide car bomber killed eight people and wounded more than 50 in Kabul on Tuesday, one of a string of attacks countrywide.

Afghanistan has ordered Western and domestic media to impose a blackout on coverage of violence during Thursday's polls, saying it did not want Afghans to be frightened away.

President Hamid Karzai is running against 30 challengers and faces a second-round run-off against the next best contender if he does not secure more than 50 per cent of the vote on Thursday.

 

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