Afghan leader survives failed assassination

AFGHAN president Hamid Karzai survived an assassination attempt yesterday when a security guard fired at his car shortly after 22 people were killed in a car blast in Kabul.

The Kandahar governor, Gul Agha Sherzai, was wounded in the attack and witnesses saw him bleeding from the neck. The attack happened as Mr Karzai's car was leaving the governor's mansion in Kandahar.

Kabul Police Chief Basir Salangi accused al-Qaida of orchestrating the attacks. "This is the work of al-Qaida," he said.

Mr Karzai's American bodyguards opened fire in response to the shooting and three people were killed including one who was wearing an Afghan military uniform. It was not known if the governor was wounded by gunfire from the assailant or from shots fired afterward.

"I was just outside the gate when I heard the gun shots," Sherzai's security chief Dur Mohammed said. "The Americans opened fire on three people and they were killed."

The incident occurred shortly after a car bomb killed and wounded scores of people in the Afghan capital, Kabul, 300 miles to the northeast. It was unclear if the incidents were related.

Mr Karzai was in Kandahar, the former spiritual headquarters of the Taliban, to attend the wedding celebration for his youngest brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai. Witnesses said Mr Karzai was leaving the governor's house in his motorcade when shots were fired in his direction. US Special Forces guarding him screamed for him to take cover and the convoy sped away.

Three bullet-riddled bodies could be seen outside the mansion grounds in a pool of blood. After the attack, Mr Karzai returned to the governor's guesthouse, where he is staying, and said he was fine, said the BBC's Lyse Doucet, who witnessed the attack.

The attacks in Kandahar and Kabul came less than a week ahead of the September 11 anniversary, and at a time when Afghanistan was remembering Northern Alliance leader Ahmed Shah Massood, killed last September 9, 2001, in an assassination blamed on Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terror network.

In Kabul, a powerful car bomb rocked a busy market area in the city centre, killing at least 22 people in the bloodiest attack in the Afghan capital since the fall of the Taliban.

A UN security official said 22 people were dead and about 65 people were rushed to one hospital. Policemen were among the dead.

Witnesses said a smaller explosion had drawn crowds to the area when the car bomb apparently in a taxi exploded in front of a building containing shops selling TV and satellite dishes all forbidden during hard-line Taliban rule. The second floor of the building housed a small hotel.