UN to shut Kandahar mission

The United Nations has shut its mission in Kandahar and removed many foreign staff from the southern Afghan city, it said today…

The United Nations has shut its mission in Kandahar and removed many foreign staff from the southern Afghan city, it said today, a sign of worsening security ahead of a major US offensive.

The UN pullout further alarmed residents as thousands of US troops plan to launch the biggest operation of the nearly nine-year-old war in coming weeks.

UN spokeswoman Susan Manuel said all Afghan staff in Kandahar had been told to stay home, and some foreign staff had been moved to the capital Kabul for their safety a day earlier. She would not say how many international staff had stayed behind, or whether a specific threat was behind the decision.

Hours after the UN announcement, suspected Taliban infiltrators blew up tankers at fuel depot outside the city, near the air field that serves as the biggest Nato base in the province. Sher Mohammad Zazai, a senior Afghan army commander in the south, said 10 guards at the depot were wounded in the attack.

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The offensive is the cornerstone of a "surge" strategy by President Barack Obama, employing the bulk of the 30,000 extra troops he is dispatching to Afghanistan this year to turn the tide against a mounting Taliban insurgency.

Under the plans, expected to begin unfolding in June, about 8,000 US. and Canadian troops will try to secure rural areas around the city while a brigade of 3,500 US troops escorts 6,700 Afghan police into urban areas. In all, the offensive will involve 23,000 Nato ground troops, Afghan soldiers and police.