August 18, 2008	Monday	Sha'aban 15, 1429

KABUL, Aug 17: About 7,000 police launched a massive security operation in the Afghan capital Kabul on Sunday, the interior ministry said, amid an increase in militant attacks and crime including kidnapping.

The operation, described by the ministry as the biggest in Kabul since the 2001 fall of the Taliban regime, comes a day after the education minister escaped a roadside bomb and on the eve of Afghanistan’s Independence Day.

Police who are already on the ground — including those from the counter-terrorism, counter-narcotics and anti-crime units — will step up searches, patrols and other activities.

“The aim of this operation is to clear certain areas of Kabul ... create an environment of trust, disrupt bombings and seize narcotics,” the ministry said in a statement.

Education Minister Mohamad Hanif Atmar was not hurt in a blast that struck his convoy on the outskirts of the city on Saturday. A driver was wounded in the explosion.

Two separate bombings in the city this month have killed two foreign soldiers and about seven Afghans. There has also been a surge in kidnappings for ransom in recent months.

Officials said separately that a traditional annual high-profile event to mark the defeat of the British 89 years ago would on Monday be replaced with a more low-key commemoration.

The last major parade in the capital, on April 27, was disrupted when militants opened fire on a stage where President Hamid Karzai, ministers, diplomats and other senior officials were seated.

Karzai survived but three people as well as three of the attackers — said to be from the Taliban militia — were killed.

Kabul sees some Taliban-linked unrest but most of the violence occurs in the southern and eastern parts of the country.—AFP