Yagami Website

KABUL - President Hamid Karzai extended his lead Tuesday in Afghanistan's fraud-tainted elections, for the first time passing the key 50 percent threshold needed to avoid a run-off with nearly all the votes counted.

However the country's Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) said for the first time it had found "clear and convincing evidence" of fraud in the August 20 polls.

Partial results released by the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) gave Karzai 54.1 percent of the vote with 91.6 percent of ballots counted, putting him on course for re-election.

His nearest rival, former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah, trailed far behind with 28.3 percent.

Abdullah has accused the Karzai camp of widespread ballot-stuffing in the second presidential elections since US-led forces overthrew the Taliban militia in the aftermath of the September 2001 attacks.

The New York Times has reported that Karzai loyalists set up hundreds of fictitious polling sites, where nobody voted but hundreds of thousands of ballots were still recorded toward the president's re-election.

Low turnout of around 30-35 percent, following a violent Taliban campaign of intimidation to keep voters from casting their ballots, could further bite into Karzai's legitimacy if he is declared president for another five years.

The length of time being taken to count the vote has added to tensions throughout Afghanistan as the Taliban insurgency is becoming more virulent and spreading its tentacles into previously peaceful areas.

Early Tuesday morning, a suicide bomber detonated a bomb outside the gates of a military airport in Kabul, killing three civilians and injuring nine people, including four foreign soldiers.

US and Afghan soldiers were also engaged in fierce fighting in eastern Kunar province, near Pakistan, that US forces said killed four American soldiers.

Hamisha Gulab Shinwari, governor of Sirkanay district, said 10 Afghan soldiers had also been killed in the clash and another 10 wounded.

IEC spokesman Daud Ali Najafi said ballot boxes from 600 polling sites across the country had been "quarantined," which could see the invalidation of upwards of 360,000 votes, as each polling site has 600-700 ballots.

An IEC source, who asked not to be named, said preliminary results would be announced on Thursday. Final results are not due before September 17.

Karzai needs to take 50 percent of total votes cast, plus one vote, to be declared the winner.

The UN's envoy to Afghanistan, Kai Eide, mindful of the damage the fraud allegations are doing to Afghanistan's reputation, called on electoral officials to ensure results were clean.

"The integrity of these elections is of the utmost importance to Afghanistan and to its international partners," he said.

The US government also weighed in, putting pressure on the IEC and ECC "to rigorously carry out their legal mandates to count all votes and to exclude all fraudulent votes".

As the fight against the Taliban continues -- with more than 100,000 foreign troops in the country under US and NATO command -- flak was flying over the deaths of scores of people in an air strike in northern Kunduz province.

The airstrike was ordered early Friday by a German commander after Taliban militants hijacked fuel trucks on a NATO supply route from Tajikistan.

Afghan officials have said 90 people were killed or injured in the strike, the scene of which was visited by the commander of foreign forces in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal.

NATO acknowledged civilians were killed or injured, and said McChrystal had ordered an investigation.

Coming just weeks before Germans go to the polls -- in which Germany's involvement in Afghanistan is likely to be an issue -- the incident forced Chancellor Angela Merkel on the defensive before parliament.

"I will ensure that we will not put a gloss on anything," she said.