U.S. says danger to Americans rises in Afghanistan

WASHINGTON, Dec 13 (Reuters) - The United States on Wednesday renewed advice that U.S. citizens avoid Afghanistan, saying the risk of violence against Americans had increased because of the possibility of stronger U.N. sanctions.

Russia and the United States last week introduced a U.N. resolution imposing an arms embargo on the Taliban, the Muslim fundamentalist movement which rules most of Afghanistan.

The United Nations imposed some sanctions last year after the Taliban failed to expel Saudi-born Islamist militant Osama bin Laden, who is wanted in the United States on charges of planning bomb attacks on two U.S. embassies in Africa in 1998.

An updated travel warning issued by the U.S. State Department noted that the Taliban have criticized the threat of new sanctions and have threatened to close down U.N. non-humanitarian offices in Afghanistan.

"The increased tensions created by the Taliban reactions to proposed new sanctions increase the risk of violence against U.S. citizens in Afghanistan," it added.

The new travel warning, which updates one from July 1999, says the United States reserves the right to retaliate against "the facilities of those who harbor terrorists, as well as the terrorists themselves."

After the 1998 bombings in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, the United States fired cruise missiles at training camps in Afghanistan, allegedly used by bin Laden's group.

In testimony to a congressional committee on Wednesday, the State Department's top counter-terrorism official, Michael Sheehan, linked Afghanistan with the attack on the U.S. destroyer Cole in Aden harbor in October.

"While we do not have full information on who planned and carried out the attack on the USS Cole, we do know that numerous people immediately left Yemen for Afghanistan, the safe haven where they could hide out with little fear of Taliban intervention," he told the House Judiciary Committee.

In a second updated travel warning on Wednesday, the State Department extended its advice that Americans avoid Sudan, another country Washington has accused of helping bin Laden.

It said that the security situation in Sudan was unstable and that the Sudanese government may have limited control over the police and soldiers.