Amid Bombings, UN Curbs Activities in Kandahar

Foreign Staff Ordered to Flee, Locals Urged to Stay Home

Faced with increased bombings and unspecified threats, the United Nations announced today that it has curbed activities in the major southern Afghan city of Kandahar.

The foreign staff working for the UN in the city has been ordered to flee, with many of them reassigned to Kabul. The 200 local employees have been ordered to remain home until further notice.

Three more bombs hit the city today, mostly directed at one of the top provincial police officials. The attacks were just the latest in a rising amount of violence in the lead-up to NATO’s planned June invasion of the city.

The residents of the city have expressed increasing disillusionment with the international forces in the nation, and NATO’s inability to even secure the United Nations’ own activities is likely to only underscore its ineffectiveness.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.