NEW YORK - The United Nations says it will temporarily relocate at least 600 of its international staff members in Afghanistan because of security concerns.
A U.N. spokesman says the organization has decided to move about half of its 1,100 international staff in Afghanistan to more secure locations inside and outside the country.
Last week, Taliban gunmen killed five foreign U.N. workers during an assault on an international guest house in Kabul.
Also Thursday, NATO forces said one American soldier was killed when militants attacked a NATO patrol in eastern Afghanistan. NATO also said its forces killed several suspected militants in Wardak and Khowst provinces.
Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown says his country remains committed to the war in Afghanistan, despite the killing of five British soldiers by an Afghan police officer in southern Helmand province Tuesday.
Mr. Brown said the Taliban may have infiltrated the police force to kill the British soldiers. The militant group claimed responsibility for the attack.
Violence has escalated in Afghanistan during the past year, but there is also deep concern about the effects of August’s fraud-ridden presidential election on the already weak central government.
In Washington Wednesday, the top U.S. military officer, Joint Chiefs Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen, said President Hamid Karzai must prosecute corrupt officials and take other actions to establish the legitimacy of his government, following the fraud-marred polls.
Earlier, the challenger in Afghanistan’s presidential elections, Abdullah Abdullah, said President Karzai’s government lacks legitimacy and will not be able to fight corruption or fend off the Taliban.
Abdullah, whose withdrawal from an expected second-round ballot assured the president’s re-election, said the country’s election commission did not have the authority to declare Mr. Karzai the winner by default.
Abdullah said any government based on such an allegedly mistaken ruling will not be able to enact the rule of law or promote the ideals of the Afghan people.
Source: VOA News
