KABUL, Aug 26: Afghanistan’s capital is in a state of high alert following a series of recent explosions — including one on Sunday close to the hotel housing United Nations personnel.

On Monday Major Steve Odell, a spokesman for Afghanistan’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), said there had been “five significant explosions” in Kabul over the past 10 days.

In addition to Sunday night’s blast, a bomb had recently been detonated outside the ministry of communications, while another had exploded close to a cinema in Kabul.

Odell said the bombs were “not designed to wound or cause significant damage, but more to make noise because they consisted of only small amounts of explosive and had been detonated where there were few people”.

However, on Sunday evening, two people were wounded by a bomb placed in a dustbin of a residence protected by high walls in the central district of Shar-i-Naw.

A second explosion, also of low intensity, took place later in the night close to the Intercontinental hotel, the ISAF spokesman said.

“It took place between two unoccupied buildings and did not create casualties,” he said, adding the motivation behind the blast remained unknown.

He said authorities were concerned, however, because of the large amount of explosives available in Kabul.

ISAF has called for vigilance, although it expressed “a high degree of confidence in the local police force”.

However, Kabul residents face a nervous atmosphere as it is difficult to distinguish the sound of hostile bomb blasts from mine-clearance operations in nearby hills and simple accidents involving gas bottles.

Containers of chemicals were discovered in a house near the centre of town on Saturday. No arrests have been made.

And tensions have also been heightened by the recent interception of a car packed with high explosives, and the discovery of a truck carrying booby-trapped gas bottles.

Concern has also mounted in the provinces following incidents involving staff from the UN and non-governmental organizations, with many now opting not to travel by road.

Recently a rocket-propelled grenade was launched against the buildings of the Food and Agriculture Organization in Kandahar, while the office of the United Nations High Commission for refugees was burgled by armed men in the central province of Ghazni.

Since then security has been reinforced around UN buildings in Afghanistan.

US operation: US-led coalition forces on Monday wound up their latest major mission to destroy pockets of Al Qaeda resistance in southeastern Afghanistan with the arrest of 10 suspects.

But despite involving five combat air assaults and three major marches through southeastern Afghanistan, the week-long Operation Mountain Sweep apparently failed to inflict significant direct damage on its target.

US military spokesman Colonel Roger King said at Bagram Air Base just north of Kabul that 2,000 coalition troops, including Afghan militia, uncovered five weapons caches and two sets of documents belonging to the ousted Taliban regime.

US forces came under fire twice during Operation Mountain Sweep, suffering no battle casualties, but two Afghan fighters were killed in an exchange of fire outside the southern city of Kandahar last week.

Two of their attackers were also killed and one was wounded.

The operation was the latest by US-led troops to sweep through eastern and southeastern Afghanistan to root out elements of the Taliban and the Al Qaeda network.—AFP/Reuters