By Simon Cameron-Moore
KABUL, Aug 30 (Reuters) - The Taliban warned on Monday of further deadly attacks in the run-up to Afghanistan's first presidential election after a car bomb in the heart of the capital killed up to a dozen people.
Three Americans were among those killed in the blast, aimed at the offices of international security company DynCorp, which provides bodyguards for Afghan president Hamid Karzai and also helps train the national police force.
The explosion in Kabul came less than 24 hours after another blast killed 10 people, including nine children, at a religious school in Paktia province, south of Kabul.
And in a separate incident on Sunday, Afghan troops captured five Taliban in the southeastern city of Kandahar before they could carry out an attack on U.S.-led forces, Khalid Pashtun, a spokesman for the provincial governor, told Reuters.
After the Kabul blast, senior Taliban commander said any city with a Western presence could be a target ahead of the Oct. 9 elections, which U.S. ally Karzai is widely expected to win.
"We have started our operations from Kabul under new planning and preparation," said commander Mullah Daudullah, one of the ten members of the Taliban council headed by Mullah Omar, an ally of Osama bin Laden.
"We will carry out more attacks and bombings in Kabul and many of our mujahideen are present in cities where the occupying forces of infidels are present," he told Reuters by satellite telephone.
Sunday's blast, the biggest in the capital in nearly two years, raised concern over an already deteriorating security. Nearly 1,000 people have been killed in the past year -- including militants, soldiers, civilians, aid workers and election officials.
The U.S. embassy in Kabul on Monday advised its citizens to avoid military facilities, national and international government buildings, crowded places such as bazaars and restaurants and internet cafes frequented by foreigners.
Staff at international organisations have been advised to lie low and increase security.
Analysts expect President George Bush to cite the advent of democracy in Afghanistan as a foreign policy success as he seeks re-election himself in November.
UNCERTAINTY OVER TOLL
The actual number of people killed in Sunday's blast has been shrouded in confusion with Afghan officials initially saying seven, the U.S. military six and eyewitnesses and police saying more. A day later, none of the authorities, either Afghan or western military, were sure of the final tally.
NATO-led peacekeepers cordoned off the DynCorp building, and Federal Bureau of Investigation officers based at the U.S. embassy are leading the investigation.
The Taliban denied responsibility for Saturday's school blast, saying guerrillas were only targetting military centres or election staff.
U.S. spokesman Nelson said an improvised explosive device had been planted in the school and that the local authorities reported the academy's director went missing two days ago and they suspect he had been murdered.
The motive may have been some extremist group's anger at the modern curriculum taught in the madrassah, where classes for women were also held and funded by the International Committee of the Red Cross.
The Taliban, driven from power in late 2001 by U.S.-led forces, have threatened to step up attacks ahead of the presidential election and parliamentary polls in April. They dismiss the democratic process as an American sham.
Some 18,000 U.S.-led troops along with the newly formed Afghan National Army are hunting Taliban and Islamist militant insurgents in the country's south and southeast.
There are also over 8,000 NATO-led peacekeepers in charge of security in Kabul and northern Afghanistan.