Wartime security was rolled out for Afghanistan's interim President Hamid Karzai as he addressed his first election campaign rally outside the capital Tuesday amidst spiralling violence.
A fleet of helicopters escorted by fighter jets flew Karzai to an enthusiastic welcome from some 10,000 people in Ghazni, about 100 kilometres (63 miles) south of the capital, as the country counted down to Saturday's historic presidential elections.
Seven Afghan policemen were killed when their vehicle was blown up by a remote-controlled mine in the Maruf district of Kandahar province Tuesday, provincial police chief Khan Mohammad told AFP.
Shortly after he spoke, reports came in of several incidents of violence in southern Afghanistan, where remnants of the hard-line Islamic Taleban regime ousted in the 2001 US-led invasion have vowed to disrupt the vote.
Karzai's first attempt to campaign beyond the capital was aborted after a rocket attack on his helicopter last month, and security was tight for the US-backed candidate in Ghanzi, with American bodyguards beefed up by truckloads of soldiers on the streets.
In the capital Kabul, a powerful bomb was discovered and defused near a military camp in the early hours of Tuesday, a spokesman for the Nato-led peacekeeping force said.
In central Uruzgan province, Afghan security forces killed seven suspected Taleban during a two-hour gunbattle after they ambushed a battalion of government troops east of the provincial capital Tirin Kot.
In Ghanzi, the crowd, carrying posters with Karzai's picture and banners reading "Karzai is the symbol of unity", chanted Allahu Akbar (God is great) and "Long live Karzai", against a background of traditional drumming.
Karzai told the crowd: "When I see this number of people, in their thousands, I'm delighted and I'm sure that I will win."
Karzai said he was happy to see pictures of other candidates as well his own while on the way to the meeting, adding: "I urge you, whoever among the candidates gets elected you should support him.
"Your vote does not only elect your president but it lays the foundation of a peaceful, stable, prosperous Afghanistan."
Karzai outlined his vision of a new Afghanistan, saying the war-wrecked country should stand on its own feet, run on its own money and have a good health service with water and electricity for all.
In a rally in the capital Kabul, meanwhile, Karzai's chief rival Yunus Qanooni received an equally enthusiastic response from some 2,000 supporters carrying banners reading "Vote for Qanooni and establish peace".
Qanooni told the crowd in Kabul's football stadium, notorious for executions under the Taleban: "If you want an Islamic republic, if you want the rule of law, if you want national unity, if you want peace and stability, vote for me."
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