Afghan President survives assassination attempt

Afghan President Hamid Karzai survived an assassination attempt today when a security guard fired at his car as it was leaving the governor's mansion in Kandahar.

The incident occurred shortly after a car bomb killed and wounded scores of people in the Afghan capital Kabul, 300 miles to the northeast. It was unclear if the incidents were related.

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

Witnesses said he was leaving the governor's house in his motorcade when shots were fired.

US Special Forces guarding him screamed for him to take cover and the convoy sped away.

Three bullet-riddled bodies could be seen outside the mansion grounds.

The governor, Gul Agha Sherzai, was injured and three people were killed when Mr Karzai's American bodyguards opened fire.

"I was just outside the gate when I heard the gunshots," Mr Sherzai's security chief Dur Mohammed said. Shortly before the assassination attempt a car bomb exploded in a busy market in Kabul, killing and wounding dozens of people, a police spokesman said. A UN security official, who wished to remain anonymous, said 22 people had died.

Witnesses said a smaller explosion had drawn crowds when the car bomb exploded in front of shops selling televisions - forbidden during hardline Taliban rule.

Emergency vehicles and personnel carriers from the international peacekeeping force rushed to the scene near the Ministry of Information. The second floor of the building housed a small hotel.

"This bomb was inside a taxi," said police spokesman Dul Aqa .

The blast occurred in one of the most congested areas of the city.

One shopper, Haji Abdul Aroof, said he saw four bodies lying in the street.

"We came to see what was happening when the second bomb went off," he said. "There was a powerful explosion and we all ran."

Some dazed victims were led away, their clothing ripped and covered in blood.