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Nine Afghan soldiers killed in bombing Information from Hakimi in the past has sometimes proven exaggerated or untrue. Afghan and U.S. military officials say he is believed to speak for factions of the rebel group, though his exact ties to the Taliban leadership cannot be verified. Outside the military hospital, about 30 wailing and shouting relatives waited for news of loved ones. "I condemn this brutal action of the terrorists in our country. They are against human beings," said Shaukat, a 23-year-old who gave only one name. Fighting back tears, he said he had heard that his cousin, an army officer, had been wounded, but soldiers would not let him past the hospital gates to try to find him. The attack underscores the terrorist threat in Afghanistan four years after U.S.-led forces ousted the hard-line Taliban regime for hosting Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaida network. The Sept. 18 elections were viewed as a key step in the country's transition toward democracy after two decades of war and civil strife, but many outlying areas in the south and east remain prey to Taliban-led insurgents. The capital, patrolled by NATO peacekeepers, is regarded as relatively secure. The last major explosion in Kabul was in August 2004, when a car bomb tore through the office of a U.S. security contractor that provided security for Karzai, killing about 10 people. The Taliban claimed responsibility. There has been an upsurge in violence this year in the south and east. More than 1,300 people, many of them rebels, have died in the past seven months. Senior Afghan officials also have spoken of al-Qaida operatives entering the country to stage attacks. On June 1, a suicide blast in the southern city of Kandahar during the funeral of a moderate Muslim cleric critical of the former Taliban regime killed 20 people, including the Kabul police chief, and wounded 42. That attack stoked fears that insurgents fighting the Afghan government and U.S.-led coalition forces were copying deadly tactics used in Iraq.
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