KABUL — A suicide bomber blew himself up in downtown Kabul on Sunday, killing three Afghans and raising fears of further attacks in the capital as senior diplomats from dozens of nations are scheduled to arrive for an international conference Tuesday.
The security in Kabul is expected to be extraordinarily tight for the conference, which will be attended by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and other dignitaries from about 60 countries. Although there have been many deadly attacks in Kabul during the war, they have grown rather rare in recent months.
The bomber detonated near a market in the Microyan 4 neighborhood, a middle-class, residential area of Soviet-built housing.
As violence has intensified this year in Afghanistan, insurgents have increasingly inflicted more harm on the country’s civilians. On Sunday, NATO officials said they intercepted guidance from Taliban leader Mohammad Omar calling on his fighters to kill women and other civilians who cooperate with NATO forces. This directive from the secretive, one-eyed leader is a departure from his earlier messages, which called for protecting Afghan civilians in order to not alienate the population.
NATO officials said they intercepted Omar’s orders in early June.
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