KABUL: The top U. S. General in Afghanistan issued a rare public warning Monday to Afghans celebrating the country's Independence Day that militants planned to attack civilian, military and government targets. Only hours earlier a suicide bomber killed 10 Afghans outside a U. S. Base.

The warning by Maj. Gen. Jeffrey J. Schloesser said "credible intelligence" indicated that militants planned to launch attacks during the celebrations. A U. S. Military statement said an increase in security and public awareness can "save Afghan lives, defeating the enemies plan to discredit the Afghan government." By nightfall no major attacks had taken place, apart from the suicide car bombing, though officials said intelligence indicated a high threat level for the whole week.

Two hours before the warning was issued, a suicide bomber detonated explosives outside a U. S. Base in the eastern province of Khost, killing ten Afghan laborers and wounding 13, according to a U. S. Military statement. Security forces stopped a second car bomber from detonating his explosives.

While Afghan, U. S. And NATO intelligence officials say they often hear of and disrupt plans by militants, rarely does the U. S. go to such lengths to publicize the threat. All United Nations staff were ordered to work from home Monday as a security precaution, said spokesman Aleem Siddique.

The U. S. Warning came one day after 7,000 police flooded the Afghan capital in advance of Afghanistan's 89th anniversary of independence from Britain. Even the location of the official celebration was kept secret and remained closed to the public to try to minimize the risk that insurgents could again disrupt a national commemoration. About 100 people - diplomats and officials - attended a mid afternoon ceremony in the secure compound of the Afghan Defense Ministry. President Hamid Karzai placed a bouquet of flowers on a monument in memory of fallen soldiers while a military band played the national anthem.

In April, gunmen in a rented hotel room fired on Karzai at a military parade in Kabul as he sat in the review stands. Karzai escaped injury, but the attack killed three people, including a lawmaker. Taliban violence has spiked across Afghanistan in recent days, including an ambush on a NATO convoy on Sunday, attacks on police checkpoints and a roadside bomb targeting a police convoy. More than 90 people were killed over four days -most of them reportedly Taliban insurgents. NATO said an insurgent attack killed a British soldier on patrol in southern Afghanistan Monday.

Kabul so far has been spared the violence afflicting much of Afghanistan, but there are signs the Taliban and other militant groups have gained a foothold in neighboring provinces. And the capital suffered spectacular bomb attacks this year against an international hotel and the Indian Embassy.

Overall, insurgent attacks jumped by 50 percent in the first half of 2008 from the previous year, according to data from the Afghanistan NGO Safety Office, a Kabul based group that advises relief groups on security.

Source : AP