The American Security Company, Dyncorps Inc., suffered a deadly attack in Kabul by a car bomb killing ten people, including three Americans. Just hours later, nine people, eight of them children, were killed by a bomb that exploded outside of their school in Southeastern Afghanistan. According to the Washington Post, the Taliban has claimed responsibility for the attacks against Dyncorps, the company that provides security for President Hamid Karzai, and has vowed to disrupt the presidential elections which are scheduled to take place in early October. A Taliban spokesman states that the Taliban has made an “appeal to civilians to stay away from the elections and places where the Americans and coalition are living and working” as “they are our priority targets.”
Last week, the United Nations mission to Afghanistan warned that the Taliban and other extremist groups will likely increase their attacks before Afghanistan’s presidential elections are to take place this October. According to the Associated Press, the US government warned all American’s to keep a low profile in Afghanistan after the attacks against Dyncorps took place. With limited deployment of peacekeeping troops to Afghanistan, the Taliban and other extremists have become more active. The Taliban have threatened, kidnapped, and killed women’s rights activists and aid workers as a way to derail the upcoming elections. Over the past year, more than 30 aid workers have been murdered.
The Feminist Majority Foundation is leading the call for a significant increase in the number of peacekeepers throughout Afghanistan to provide security and stability. Without adequate resources and security, women in Afghanistan will never be able to obtain their rights, and the country will never have sustained peace and democracy.
TAKE ACTION Urge the Bush Administration to immediately expand the international peacekeeping operations in Afghanistan
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