As Afghan Presidential Vote Nears, Deadly Taliban Attacks Spike -- Christian Science Monitor
The Taliban attacks could threaten the credibility of the presidential vote. One international poll monitoring group has pulled its observers due to violence, and more could follow.
With just 11 days left before a crucial presidential election in Afghanistan, an attack on an election commission office in Kabul laid bare the security challenge facing Afghan officials in organizing national polls that the Taliban has vowed to derail.
Several gunmen and suicide bombers stormed a regional elections office on Tuesday afternoon and engaged in a protracted gunfight with Afghan security personnel, Reuters reports. Although no casualties were immediately reported, the attack was brazen in both in its choice of location – next to the home of a presidential candidate, Ashraf Ghani – and its timing, staged less than a week after another strike killed nine in an upscale Kabul hotel.
And it brought to the fore, once again, the question of whether Afghanistan is adequately prepared to stage free and transparent elections in a safe environment.
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More News On The Taliban Intensifying Their Attacks As Afghanistan's Presidential Election Nears
5 Killed in Kabul as Taliban Target Election Offices -- New York Times
Taliban gunmen storm election office near Afghan presidential candidate's home -- Reuters
Afghanistan: Taliban militants carry out deadly attack on Kabul election office -- CNN
Insurgents Storm an Election Commission Office in Kabul -- WSJ
9 killed in attack on Afghanistan election commission -- Stars and Stripes
15 killed in bloody day of Afghan violence -- AFP
Suicide bombings kill at least 17 in Afghanistan -- Washington Post
Taliban launch series of deadly attacks in runup to Afghanistan elections -- The Guardian
Afghanistan's Election Heats Up — And So Do The Attacks -- NPR
Foreign observers face hurdles in Afghanistan -- Washington Post/AP
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