January 3, 2006	Tuesday	Zilhaj 2, 1426

KABUL, Jan 2: The Afghan government will press ahead with a plan to require Western embassies, foreign military forces and security firms to remove security barriers in a bid to ease traffic congestion in Kabul, a spokesman said on Monday.

The US-led foreign military force in Afghanistan, which has been frequently targeted by suicide bombings and other attacks, and other Western organisations have expressed concern over the order, issued by President Hamid Karzai last week.

But Interior Ministry spokesman Yousuf Stanezai said all barriers set up on streets or pathways in the Afghan capital must be removed by Saturday.

“The government is very serious about it and will open those areas obstructed for traffic after the expiration of the time,” he said, adding there would be no exceptions.

Security barriers and concrete anti-blast blocks have sprung up outside many foreign compounds in Kabul after repeated insurgent attacks in the four years since US-led forces overthrew Taliban in 2001.

In the latest attack, a suicide attacker drove a car bomb into a convoy of foreign troops in the centre of the southern city of Kandahar on Monday, wounding a US soldier, an Afghan woman and a child.

In parts of Kabul, such as near the fortress-like US embassy and the headquarters of Nato-led peacekeepers, barriers block off whole roads to traffic, adding to severe congestion in the city.

In addition, whole districts are shut to traffic during visits of foreign dignitaries or when Karzai himself travels across the city.

The public mood has recently been darkened by local media reports that some pregnant women have died in traffic jams trying to reach hospital, or have had to give birth in cars.

Karzai’s order came after local residents and displaced street vendors staged an angry protest in Kabul last month against a security barrier set up outside a newly built five-star hotel. The barrier was subsequently removed.

Lieutenant Mike Cody, a spokesman for the US military, said the US-led force, international aid agencies and foreign governments had all voiced concern about the government plan.

“Officials with the government of Afghanistan indicated they would study the situation further and revisit the issue later with the parties involved,” he said.—Reuters