Taliban rockets hit Kabul, warn more coming

KABUL — Taliban militants unleashed a wave of rockets at Kabul's international airport and government buildings Tuesday in an attempt to shatter the sense of security in the Afghan capital less than three weeks before presidential elections.

The rockets missed their targets, lightly wounding a girl and a man with flying glass, but a Taliban spokesman said the group would soon launch more attacks in Kabul, which has been largely spared the violence roiling the south and east of the country.

Incumbent President Hamid Karzai made a rare campaign appearance in the heavily Pashtun east to appeal for votes from the ethnic group that provides most of the support for the insurgents. He told a crowd of several thousands in Gardez, the capital of Paktia province, that Western forces must release suspected Taliban supporters and fighters held without charge for months and even years.

The U.S. military holds some 600 prisoners at a detention center at Bagram Air Base outside Kabul as "unlawful enemy combatants" denied the right to legal representation. Their status is a growing source of tension between the U.S. and Karzai, who has been increasingly criticizing American forces for the detentions, along with raids on homes and airstrikes that kill civilians.

Karzai issued one of his strongest demands yet for the mostly Pashtun detainees' freedom.

"The Afghan people are happy because you have paved roads, built schools, and the salaries of the government are paid by the international community and United States," he told the crowd in a field before a mosque. "But we want all our prisoners to be released. We need dignity in our houses and dignity for our women."

Karzai, who has made few campaign appearances, was once highly popular inside and outside Afghanistan but has lost luster in recent years because of endemic government corruption, a huge narcotics industry and the unyielding violence.

He called for the Taliban to negotiate with the government and participate in the election but said the two sides remained too far apart for talks to be successful.

The president condemned a suicide attack Tuesday in Zabul province, where a bomber detonated his explosive vest besides a vehicle carrying Afghan security agents, killing one agent and four civilians. Eighteen people were wounded, police said.

Karzai did not mention the attack launched on Kabul at dawn from a largely unpopulated section of Deh Sabz, an area about five miles (eight kilometers) northeast of the city.