With Additional Reporting By Mutiallah Tayeb, IOL Afghanistan Correspondent

KABUL, September 8 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - As the world prepares to celebrate the first anniversary of the September 11 events, Kabul is celebrating another anniversary, that of the death of Ahmed Shah Masood, the former leader of the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance, who was killed by two Moroccans September 9, 2001.

Afghan authorities mounted Sunday, September 8, a huge security operation in the capital ahead of a ceremony to mark the anniversary of the assassination of Masood.

The event on Monday, September 9, is expected to be attended by tens of thousands, will be staged just four days after a car blast that killed 30 people in the capital and an attempt on President Hamid Karzai's life, Agence France-Presse (AFP) said.

In a further sign of the unstable security situation, 12 people were said to have been injured by a bomb in the southeastern city of Khost on Sunday, while tribal fighting reportedly broke out in the same region, AFP said.

Four of the injured were seriously hurt in the blast at the main Madina market, the Afghan Islamic Press said.

The agency also said eight people have been killed in three days of clashes between the area's Sapari and Bul Khel tribes in an apparent turf war.

Interior Minister Taj Mohammad Wardak said extra security forces were being deployed for the ceremony at the national stadium in Kabul, due to security fears.

The ceremony will feature speeches by ministers and associates of the late anti-Taliban Northern Alliance leader.

"I cannot tell you the number of police that will be deployed for security reasons, but we are definitely reinforcing the levels of security for tomorrow," Wardak told AFP.

Kabul police chief Basir Salangi described the security operation as the biggest in the capital since the downfall of Afghanistan's Taliban rulers late last year.

"We have put our security on the maximum number one level," Salangi said.

"We have tightened security all over Kabul but particularly in the stadium and the surrounding neighborhoods. Uniformed and plain-clothes secret police have already started their work."

The National Directorate of Security intelligence service will be responsible for security inside the stadium while Kabul police and the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) will take charge outside.

ISAF spokesman Major James Kelly said extra patrols and road blocks would be in force Monday.

The main road to the stadium has been sealed off and scores of police were conducting body searches and inspections of the stands.

An international conference marking the anniversary of the assassination of Masood, which aims at studying the dimensions of Masood's personality, started Saturday, September 7, and will last till September 10.

Guests from different countries were invited to participate in the conference, the first day of which witnessed the attendance of guests who, though of different intellectual perspectives, all praised Masood for his political and military role during the last 30 years in Afghanistan.

Surrounded by U.S. heavily armed bodyguards, Afghan President Hamid Karzai spoke at the conference two days after surviving an attempt on his own life, saying that Masood was the symbol of resistance and he praised his fight against foreigners.

"We are here today because [Masood] did something before he lost his life for Afghanistan," Karzai, who also spoke to the audience in English and Persian, told the conference in Kabul.

"Without that, even with September 11 we would have had to begin from zero and I do not know if we would have succeeded or not [in ousting Taliban]," he added.

"Masood, our martyred brother, is one of the sons of this land whose name will be written in gold in the history of Afghanistan."

Under a giant picture of Masood, other senior figures added their tributes, although none of them mentioned Pakistan in their speeches.

Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah, who was one of Masood's key men in the Northern Alliance, choked back tears while eulogizing his former leader.

"He wanted everything for the nation, nothing for himself. Today is the result of his words and struggle.

"I have lost my dearest friend, dearest of all. A friend I worked with for 16 years..." Abdullah said.

Masood Khalili, who was with Masood at the time of his death, said he had "lost a dear friend and our country has lost its dearest leader."

He added: "When I see the hopes of Afghanistan, I remember the hopes of my dear lost friend Masood. Do not let his nation, which has been as high as its mountains through history, come down."

The French guests were very enthusiastic in their speeches about Masood, highlighting the strong relationship he had with Paris.

"The French wished that they have a leader like Masood," said Perry Laland, former French minister and presidency candidate.

The Indian ambassador to Kabul also spoke at the conference on behalf of his foreign minister, saying that Masood was a friend of India. He also used the opportunity to mention a Pakistani role in murdering Masood.

Abedrab el Rasool Sayaf, one of the Mujahedeen leaders, said that Masood was the moderate hero of Islam, adding that Masood wanted to implement an Islamic system and that honoring him requires implementing the basis of such a system.

In memory of Masood, his brother, Ahmed Wali Masood, said that a charity organization under the name of "Masood Foundation" will be established to help in the reconstruction of Afghanistan in the areas of construction, education and development.

Karzai prayed later Saturday at the tomb of assassinated national hero Masood.

"May God bless him and the people he has left behind. May God bless the people of Afghanistan," said a sombre Karzai, who visited this Panjshir Valley village amid tight security.

"His mission in life was the freedom of Afghanistan and he became a martyr for that cause," Karzai said in an address inside the slain Northern Alliance military leader's hilltop mausoleum.

U.S. special forces, who are protecting Karzai round the clock and who gunned down his attacker on Thursday, flew with him from Kabul by helicopter.

An armed U.S. special forces soldier flanked him as he walked to the mausoleum, accompanied by Vice-President and Defense Minister Mohammad Qasim Fahim.