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The Taliban cast their long shadow over preparations for the Afghan election when a suicide bomber killed at least seven people in Kabul today.
The car bomb, whose victims included three European soldiers and two local Afghan staff, on a main road out of Kabul to the eastern city of Jalalabad, was the latest show of strength by militants. More than 50 people were wounded.
A Nato spokesman said “some” troops from the International Security Assistance Force were killed and injured. The UN confirmed two of its staff died and a third was injured.
“I am shocked and greatly saddened to have learned that two of my staff members were among those killed in today's suicide bombing on Kabul's Jalalabad Road,” said Kai Eide, the head of the UN mission.
Earlier, a rocket was fired into the presidential palace. The Kabul residence of President Hamid Karzai — favourite to win Thursday's presidential election — was damaged by at least one rocket and the city's police headquarters was hit.
For the millions of Afghans who must decide their country's future, life goes on as normal. With more than half the population under 25, most people are too young to remember anything but the Taliban and violence. Bombs, rockets and suicide attacks are normal.
Few seem convinced these elections will change that. “I don't know if I will vote,” said Mahamadullah. “Everyone promises peace. But they are all the same. Who can fix Afghanistan?”
Election posters cling to lamp posts on Kabul's few paved roads. Shabby shop windows and dusty mud walls have a splash more colour thanks to flyers advertising any one of almost 40 candidates.
But for many people in the capital, the election rarely impacts on their lives. Most people seem undecided or apathetic. The grainy television sets in the corner of every kebab shop are just as likely to show corny Indian soap operas as news or political debates.
Karzai's supporters seem resigned to more of the same. Abdullah Abdullah's camp, which has 25 per cent in the polls, is most eager for change. The idealists support Ramazan Bashar Dost, an eccentric philosopher who campaigns from a mini-van, preaching a message of government without war criminals. Even his most ardent fans accept he will never win.
The country's first televised presidential debate got a few more people talking politics. But the candidate's manifestos are not why people vote — most will follow their tribal, ethnic or family allegiances.
“I will vote for Abdullah,” said Kasim, 22. “Because my father is from the same village.” The Taliban have vowed to boycott the elections and to slit the throats of people who vote.
Talk of a spectacular attack has got most of the international civilian workforce that is still in Kabul on lockdown. But it's hard to imagine the Taliban stopping the elections altogether. A handful of Nato soldiers, more used to sipping cappuccinos in headquarters than facing down suicide bombers, came out, warily, on to the streets. For them it was a rare taste of the insurgency.
Most of their tours are too short for them to remember the last major attack in the capital, in February, when eight militants stormed three government buildings and killed 20 people.
Then as now, the city does its best to make do.
