At least three people were killed and more than 30 wounded, acting health ministry spokesman Mohibullah Zeer said, hours after the Taliban warned voters to boycott the ballot "to protect their lives".

The Italian NGO Emergency said 37 people had been taken to its trauma hospital in Kabul, including a dead child.

The Taliban have been using both bombs and rockets. Not every attack has had casualties.

"I came here early to finish and go home quickly, but we have been waiting for an hour and they have not started yet," Mustafa, 42, told AFP outside a mosque in Kabul.

"The queue is getting longer. They have to register our votes quickly -- we are afraid a bomber or a blast may hit us."

The vote won't stop, though, which is important. Taliban violence postponed this vote from its originally scheduled date in 2016, and even with delays and extensions it's a relief that it will finally happen.

Despite the risks, President Ashraf Ghani urged "every Aghan, young and old, women and men" to exercise their right to vote, after casting his ballot in Kabul.

...

A woman dressed in a burqa leaving a polling centre in Mazar-i-Sharif told AFP she had been worried about "security incidents", but decided to vote anyway.

"We have to defy the violence," Hafiza, 57, said. "In previous years we were not happy with the elections, our votes were sold out."