Bin Laden blamed as assassin strikes at Karzai

His bodyguards – all US special forces – shot and killed three people, including a man in an Afghan army uniform, outside the mansion of the Kandahar governor who was shot in the neck by the would-be assassin.

In Washington, the Pentagon said one of the dead was the failed assassin.

Karzai, 44, insisted he was fine and had come to expect such attacks.

The attack came shortly after a car bomb attack 300 miles away in the capital Kabul that killed at least 10 people and which police also blamed on bin Laden’s al-Qaida.

“Terrorists are behind both attacks, there is no doubt about it. And terrorists in this region are led by Osama and his associates,” said Afghan Foreign Minister Dr Abdullah Abdullah.

The twin attacks were a major blow to Karzai’s prestige and that of his fragile US backed government.

It occurred less than a week before the anniversary of the September 11 terror attacks and four days ahead of the anniversary of the assassination of military leader Ahmed Shah Massood, who was killed by al-Qaida.

Massood’s Tajik-controlled Northern Alliance, which had battled the Taliban for five years, became the major power in Karzai’s government. It is opposed by Pashtuns, who dominate the south, where today’s assassination attempt took place.

The Pashtuns, the largest ethnic community and the Taliban’s former political base, have grown increasingly frustrated by the Tajiks who dominate the new administration.

Foreign Minister Abdullah said there was “no doubt” Karzai was the target of an assassination attempt.

The security guard opened fire as the convoy carrying Karzai and Governor Gul Agha Sherzai were leaving the governor’s mansion in Kandahar.

Sherzai was wounded, and witnesses saw him bleeding from the neck, but a US military official said his injuries were not life threatening.

The president’s American bodyguards opened fire in response to the shooting, and three people were killed including one who was wearing an Afghan military uniform. Their bullet-riddled bodies could be seen outside the grounds of the mansion in a pool of blood.

Karzai was in Kandahar, his home town and the former spiritual headquarters of the Taliban, to attend a wedding celebration for his youngest brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai.

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

In Washington, a Pentagon official said an American bodyguard in Karzai’s security detail was slightly wounded.

Karzai sacked his Afghan bodyguards in July amid fears of assassination and replaced them with the Americans.

After the attack, Karzai returned to the governor’s guesthouse, where he is staying, and said he was fine.

“He says he is safe and sound, and has come to expect these things,” said BBC reporter Lyse Doucet, who was with the president at the time of the attack.

She said thousands of people were pressing forward toward the president and one Afghan boy approached his vehicle.

As Karzai leaned out to shake hands with the boy, “an Afghan in uniform also came forward and fired two rounds into the president’s vehicle.”

President George Bush, informed of the attack by an aide as he waited on the tarmac in Louisville, Kentucky, expressed relief that Karzai was not hurt.

Sherzai, the injured governor, was being treated at the hospital at the US air base in Kandahar, said Major Teri Oman, a base spokesman. Oman said Sherzai was shot in that neck but that the wounds were not life threatening. “He’s up and walking around” and expected to be released late tonight or early tomorrow, she said.

The shooting occurred shortly after a car bomb rocked a busy market area in the centre of Kabul in the bloodiest attack in the Afghan capital since the fall of the Taliban late last year.

Reports of the number of casualties were confused, but police said 10 people were killed and dozens wounded. The death toll was uncertain because Afghans often pick up the bodies of their relatives and bury them immediately without reporting the death.

About 65 people were rushed to one hospital, with an unknown number taken elsewhere.

Kabul Police Chief Basir Salangi accused al-Qaida of orchestrating the explosion.

“This is the work of al-Qaida,” he said.

Emergency vehicles and armoured personnel carriers from the international peacekeeping force rushed to the scene in a crowded market area near the Ministry of Information.

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

Police sealed off the area, but emergency vehicles could be seen rushing injured to hospitals. Some dazed victims could be seen being led away, their clothing ripped and covered in blood.

“This bomb was inside a taxi,” said police spokesman Dul Aqa. “It was a very, very strong explosion.”

In addition to al-Qaida, former Prime Minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar was a suspect in the bombing, he said.

Earlier this week, Hekmatyar issued a call for jihad, or holy war, to drive US and foreign troops including international peacekeepers from Afghanistan.

Some officials have speculated that he may have formed an alliance with remaining al-Qaida and Taliban leaders, although no clear evidence of this has surfaced.

The blast occurred in one of the most congested areas of the city on a day when many residents do their shopping before Friday’s Muslim prayer day.

Several main roads in the city were blocked and additional police and soldiers, armed with rocket launchers and automatic weapons, took positions at strategic points in the capital.