AFGHANISTAN: Afghan police yesterday began questioning two suspects in the wake of the assassination attempt on President Hamid Karzai and a devastating car bomb in Kabul which left 26 dead.
It is still unclear whether the two attacks were connected. Afghan officials blamed both on Taliban and al-Qaida loyalists.
Investigators in Kandahar named the man who tried to shoot the Afghan president as Abdur Rehman, who they said came from the Kajaki area of Helmand province, a known Taliban stronghold in southern Afghanistan.
Police said Rehman had been hired four days earlier as a guard at the Kandahar governor's mansion.
As Mr Karzai left the mansion on Thursday afternoon, Rehman, who was dressed in a military uniform, stepped out of the crowd and fired four rounds into his car, narrowly missing the president.
US special forces, who have been guarding the president since July, leapt from their four-wheel drive vehicle and shot Rehman dead. An Afghan bodyguard and an armed bystander were also killed in a brief gun battle.
It became clear yesterday how narrowly the Afghan president had survived the attack. One bullet hit the back of Mr Karzai's seat, another smashed the window by his side.
Mr Gul Agha Sherzai, the Kandahar governor, was sitting next to Mr Karzai and was slightly wounded in the neck. An Afghan bodyguard was also wounded.
"It is premature to say anything about who was behind this attack but terrorist elements are still bent upon killing Afghan leaders," Mr Sherzai said yesterday.
Mr Khalid Pashtoon, the Kandahar governor's spokesman, said the gunman had started guarding the entrance to the mansion only four days earlier. "The people guarding this place were hired to protect the palace, not us. Maybe it's our big mistake," he said.
Mr Karzai himself appeared remarkably unruffled by the assassination attempt. "I am safe and sound. I am fine," he said minutes after the attack. "I expect things like that to come across the way. I've been threatened before."