Afghan leader escapes assassination bid

Afghan President Hamid Karzai escaped a rocket attack on the US helicopter carrying him to a provincial capital today.

It was at least the second apparent attempt on the interim leader’s life since he took office in 2001, and the most ominous incident yet in the run-up to next month’s landmark election.

The American military said the rocket missed the helicopter as it approached a landing zone near Gardez, where Karzai planned to open a school.

“The rocket was fired at the helicopter as it was landing, and missed,” said US military spokesman Major Mark McCann.

The helicopter did not touch down and returned the president to Kabul. No one was hurt, either on the ground or in the air, presidential spokesman Jawed Ludin said.

McCann said the impact site was near a school just 300 yards from the landing zone.

“The president was not in any imminent danger,” McCann said.

There was no indication who fired the rocket, but suspicion will fall on militants, including the former ruling Taliban, who are waging a stubborn insurgency against Karzai’s US backed administration.

More than 900 people have died so far this year in political violence across Afghanistan.

Karzai has been constantly shadowed by Afghan and American bodyguards since the July 2002 killing of a vice president and the September 2002 assassination attempt on the president in the southern city of Kandahar.