by Rachel Morarjee
KABUL, Aug 31 (AFP) - The FBI Tuesday took over the investigation into the deadly weekend bombing of an American security firm in Kabul as the Afghan capital braced for further attacks in the run-up to landmark presidential polls.
At least nine people were killed and dozens injured in Sunday`s blast at the office of US contractor DynCorp, which provides President Hamid Karzai`s guards and trains the country`s fledgling police force.
"We no longer have anyone on site. We have handed over the investigation to the FBI and the Kabul City Police," Ken Mackillop, spokesman for the NATO-led international peacekeeping force, told AFP.
US Federal Bureau of Investigation agents were coming and going from the cordoned-off blast site, which was still strewn with broken glass and the burnt-out wrecks of cars, according to a western security source.
A US forensic team was also expected to comb through the wreckage for further clues, the source said.
"Everything apart from the bodies is still in place. Nothing has been touched," he added.
Kabul braced for possible further strikes with two security alerts in the Wazir Akbar Khan embassy district Tuesday morning.
The street, which passes the US-led Coalition`s Kabul Compound and many major European embassies, was blocked for a car-bomb alert around 11:00 am but a NATO-led ordnance team established that it was just a stalled vehicle.
Just over an hour in a second false alarm, a truck was stopped on the same road outside the German embassy because it was suspected of carrying explosives.
Four dogs reacted to the vehicle at the gates of the embassy, peacekeeping soldiers and police at the site told AFP. NATO-led explosives teams investigating the truck established that it did not pose a threat.
With Afghanistan`s first presidential elections just five weeks away, the culprits behind Sunday`s attack are still at large and details of exactly who was responsible remain obscure.
Mackillop said Monday that NATO-led peacekeepers knew that the blast had been caused by a remote-controlled device in either a truck or a car, but were still unclear who carried out the attack.
Neither NATO troops or US-led coalition forces were able to provide further details about the investigation Tuesday.
Both Al-Qaeda and the Taliban have claimed responsibility for the blast in statements.
NATO-led forces detained one suspect at Kabul airport who was found with traces of explosives on his hands. But they were unable to establish a link between the suspect and Sunday`s blast.
Despite heightened tension, international aid agencies and United Nations workers were allowed to move around the city and resume their work.
A ban on non-essential movement within the capital was lifted at 7:00pm (1430 GMT) Monday, the UN said.
Security in Afghanistan has worsened in the run-up to the election, with a string of attacks on soft targets such as election workers, civilians and aid agency staff as well as government officials and US-led troops.
Remnants of the hardline Taliban regime ousted by a US-led campaign in 2001 have vowed to disrupt the election. They have mounted a guerrilla insurgency in the south and southeast of the country and sporadic attacks in other parts of Afghanistan.