Security beefed up after attacks

Afghan authorities and the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) jointly stepped up security in the capital, Kabul, on Friday, a day after the deadly bombing there, and an assassination attempt on President Hamid Karzai in the southern city of Kandahar, officials told IRIN.

"ISAF is ready to consider requests for assistance from the Afghan authorities both in respect of these incidents and any future increases to security within Kabul," an ISAF spokesman, Simon Rayan, said following the incidents.

Karzai escaped an attempt on his life in Kandahar just a few hours after the car bomb blast in Kabul on Thursday. Three people, including the suspected attacker, were killed in the assassination attempt. Karzai had gone to Kandahar to attend his brother's wedding.

"This new development in terrorist activities is of great concern to the security forces of the transitional authority," Rayan noted. "We have been informed by the Afghan authorities that 26 people have been killed and 150 injured [in the Kabul blast]."

Another ISAF spokesman, Steve Odell, told IRIN in Kabul that ISAF and the Afghan authorities were discussing ways of enhancing security in the capital. To do so would "include increasing check-posts, increasing patrols and other such measures," he added.

Witnesses said Afghan police were checking each and every vehicle at the main crossroads in Kabul. Main roads leading to the presidential palace, the US embassy and the defence installations, had been completely closed to regular traffic.

"It is important to realise that without closing down and disrupting the everyday lives of the citizens of this city of Kabul, it is not possible to prevent every terrorist attack," Rayan noted, explaining that there were a series of procedures that would be implemented to reduce the risk of similar attacks.

"You will appreciate that the precise nature of these measures cannot be disclosed," he added.