New threats against Americans in Kabul

KABUL, Afghanistan - American officials warned U.S. citizens Monday to avoid high-profile locations and government facilities in the Afghan capital after Sunday's car bombing outside the office of an American security firm here. Officials raised the death toll to at least six people, including three Americans.

A spokesman for the Taliban, the armed Islamic militia that ruled most of the country for five years and asserted responsibility for the attack, said Monday it would step up attacks in Kabul and other cities where there are U.S. military forces and civilians.

Afghanistan is scheduled to hold the first presidential elections in its history in six weeks. The current government took over after the Taliban was driven from power by U.S.-backed forces in 2001.

American investigators combed the rubble of the offices of DynCorp Inc., a Reston, Va.-based security firm, in Kabul's fashionable Shar-i-Nau district Monday, while police blocked off the surrounding street to traffic. Concrete barricades were placed across other streets where U.S. security and contract employees live or work.

The bombing was the deadliest terrorist attack in Kabul since Sept. 5, 2002, when a bomb in a taxi exploded in a plaza, killing 30 people and wounding scores. Terrorist attacks have claimed dozens of lives in recent months, and security officials have predicted more violence as the Oct. 9 elections approach.

DynCorp said three of its American employees were killed,.