September 7, 2002	Saturday	Jamadi-us-Saani28,1423

KABUL: The attempted assassination of President Hamid Karzai in Kandahar and a devastating car bombing in Kabul on Thursday constitute the clearest threat yet to Karzai’s transitional government, which took office in June with strong US backing.

While no evidence was immediately released tying the events together, the attacks appeared to be coordinated and they were seen here as a declaration by remnants of Al Qaeda and the Taliban that Afghanistan’s slow progress would not continue without a fight.

Even though US forces are providing security for Karzai, and killed his assailant, perhaps the most enduring result of the attacks on Thursday will be to raise the question of whether the international community generally, and the United States specifically, is doing enough to ensure the success of Karzai’s government. The role of US forces underscores how difficult it will be for the United States to withdraw any time soon.

In addition to snuffing out lives and damaging property, the attacks also are sure to hurt Afghanistan’s effort to attract much-needed foreign investment. Government officials have said recently that companies seemed to be sitting on their hands, waiting until after Sept 11 to make any business deals.

The Afghan government said it had been bracing for some kind of attack in connection with the first anniversary of the Sept 11 attacks on the United States and the Sept 9 assassination of anti-Taliban warrior Ahmed Shah Massoud. But the twin attacks still shocked people, mainly because things had been going relatively smoothly.

Nine months after the Taliban regime was routed from its last bastion in Kandahar, a complex effort by the United States, its allies and the new Afghan government seemed to be bringing stability to the country. For the first time since a communist coup in the mid-1970s, a Loya Jirga held in June led to the selection of a government by all communities of the country in a broadly democratic forum.

There have been some attacks on US forces in eastern Afghanistan, where the hunt for Al Qaeda remnants continues near the Pakistani border, and there have been occasional, mostly harmless explosions in the capital. But on the whole, the country had settled into a period of calm.

The attacks on Thursday stand as a reminder that the work of rebuilding Afghanistan and making it safe from the threat of terrorism is far from over.

One obvious question in recent weeks was whether the 5,000- member international security force in Kabul should be expanded to cover other parts of the country, where central authority still is weak and warlords and criminals make life difficult for average people.

The Bush administration has been lukewarm about expanding the peacekeepers’ role. Washington has said that it would not provide US troops for an expanded force, and that a better approach would be to train a new, non-factional Afghan army to provide security throughout the country.

But UN officials have warned that creation of a national army is taking too long and that continued lawlessness in some provinces is discouraging ordinary Afghans from backing their new government.

There have been indications lately that the United States is softening its opposition to expanding the area where the International Security Assistance Force operates, but no firm decisions have been made.

Another question has been how quickly the United States and other big donors in Europe and Japan will deliver on pledges of $1.8 billion in aid to get Afghanistan back on its feet. Only about $600 million has so far been received, and Karzai’s government has been warning that it will lose the trust of people unless they see some big government projects that provide jobs, such as the rebuilding of major national highways.

There is one other bright spot for US interests in Afghanistan after Thursday’s attacks: the genuine disgust expressed by ordinary Afghans over the car bombing and their frank appreciation of international support.

Mohammed Reza, a 33-year-old government employee who witnessed the carnage, said: “Protecting Afghanistan is 50 per cent the job of our forces and 50 per cent the job of the Americans. Their presence here is valuable and worthy for us. If there was no need, why else would they be here?”—Dawn/The Los Angeles Times News Service.