AFGHANISTAN: President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan survived an assassination attempt in the southern city of Kandahar yesterday - shortly after a car bomb killed at least 15 people, and possibly as many as 30, in the heart of the capital Kabul.
Afghan officials were quick to blame the al-Qaeda network of Osama bin Laden, prime suspect for the September 11th attacks on the United States. Attackers dressed in Afghan military uniforms opened fire on Mr Karzai as he travelled in a car with his US special forces bodyguards outside the residence of the governor of Kandahar, Mr Gul Agha Sherzai.
Mr Karzai was unhurt but Mr Sherzai was wounded, officials said. In Washington, defence officials said the US special operations troops with Mr Karzai killed at least one attacker. Initial reports indicated one of the US guards might have been injured.
President Bush expressed his relief that Mr Karzai was safe. Mr Richard Armitage, the US Deputy Secretary of State, said: "Today's apparent failed assassination attempt will not stop President Hamid Karzai, the legitimate leader of Afghanistan, from continuing to bring his people together."
The British Foreign Secretary, Mr Jack Straw, said he was "extremely disturbed" to learn of the assassination attempt. The Secretary-General of the UN, Mr Kofi Annan, said he was "profoundly shocked".
In Kabul, the police chief said 15 people were killed and more than 20 wounded in the huge explosion near the ministries of information and communications. State-run Kabul TV later put the death toll at 25, with 150 wounded, while other reports had the toll as high as 30.
The blast was preceded by a smaller explosion, apparently intended to draw people on to the streets to increase the carnage.
Witnesses said thousands of people fled the business district after the second explosion. Pieces of flesh, sandals and scraps of clothing littered the road. Hundreds of windows were shattered.
It was not immediately clear whether the blasts and assassination attempt were co-ordinated, or whether the events were linked to the anniversary of the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington.
The Kabul police chief, Mr Basir Salangi, said: "These were foreign people who have no sympathy for humanity." The attack in Kabul was the worst since Mr Karzai's government came to power following the overthrow of Afghanistan's former Taliban rulers last year.
The deputy Kabul police chief, Mr Mohammad Khalil, said there was a small explosion from a bicycle, followed by a massive explosion in an old taxi. "The Taliban and al-Qaeda have revealed their black faces again."
There have been several small blasts in the city in recent months and in July authorities seized a car packed with several hundred kilograms of explosives and arrested a foreign national they said confessed to planning to assassinate government leaders, including Mr Karzai.
The blasts have added to worry about the stability of Mr Karzai's Western-backed government as it struggles to impose order on a country shattered by 23 years of conflict and riven by ethnic rivalry.
In July, Vice-President Abdul Haji Qadir was killed by two unidentified assassins as he left his Kabul office on his first day as public works minister.
He was the second of Mr Karzai's ministers to be killed. In February, civil aviation and tourism minister Mr Abdul Rahman was beaten to death at Kabul airport. Mr Karzai blamed Mr Rahman's killing on key members of the Northern Alliance. - (Reuters)