Gunman tries to kill Afghan president
· Guard turns gun on president
· US special forces kill three
· Kabul bomb: at least 15 dead
Staff and agencies
Thursday September 5, 2002
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According to witnesses, one of the president's own security guards fired at his car as it was leaving the governor's mansion in Kandahar, where Mr Karzai was attending a wedding celebration for his youngest brother.
US special forces guarding Mr Karzai screamed for him to take cover and opened fire on his attacker as the convoy sped away.
The Kandahar governor, Gul Agha Sherzai, was injured and three people were killed in the gunfire.
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A car bomb in Kabul this morning killed at least 15 people, and possibly many more, at a city market near the ministries of information and education.
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"It was a very, very strong explosion. We can't say exactly who was behind it but we know the last bombs were al-Qaida and [former prime minister] Gulbuddin [Hekmatyar], " a police spokesman, Dul Aqa, said.
Mr Hekmatyar issued a call for jihad, or holy war, this week to drive US and foreign troops including international peacekeepers from Afghanistan.
<snip>
Mr Karzai's administration has been violently attacked on several occasions since it took power.
Abdul Rahman, the minister for air transport and tourism, was beaten to death at Kabul airport in February and one of three vice-presidents, Haji Abdul Qadir, was assassinated in Kabul in July.
---- This message was posted by rhinoceros to the Virus 2002 board on Church of Virus BBS. <http://virus.lucifer.com/bbs/index.php?board=51;action=display;threadid=26395>
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