Kabul exodus on eve of election

RESIDENTS fled Kabul in droves yesterday and many others vowed to stay away from the polling booths today as Taliban militants fought a fierce gun battle with police in the capital in another day of pre-election violence.

Despite increasingly desperate appeals from Afghan and international officials for people to cast their votes in the country's second presidential election today, the Taliban campaign to disrupt the polls appeared to be bearing fruit last night, having left the Afghan capital eerily deserted.

The Taliban has sharply escalated its campaign in recent days and yesterday a Taliban spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid, claimed 20 armed suicide attackers wearing explosive vests had entered Kabul, although those reports were not verified.

The latest violence follows a suicide bomb blast on one of Kabul's major highways on Tuesday that killed nine Afghans and one NATO soldier. More than 50 others were wounded when a vehicle laden with explosives rammed a convoy near a market and a US army training base.

Earlier in the day, the Taliban launched two rocket attacks on the city, hitting the presidential palace -- the headquarters of President Hamid Karzai -- and Kabul's police headquarters. No one was killed in either attack.
<SNIP> http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25953644-2703,00.html

and this is what is going on