Karzai survives assassination attempt after bomb hits Kabul

Hamid Karzai, the President of Afghanistan, escaped an assassination attempt yesterday, shortly after a bomb killed 25 people in the centre of the capital, Kabul.

The co-ordinated attacks were the most serious and violent attempt to destabilise the country since the American-backed government was installed. It follows reports that remnants of the Taliban and al-Qa'ida have been reorganising and rearming. The attacks come amid growing anti-American sentiment in the country, following the killings of dozens of civilians in mistaken raids by US warplanes.

Mr Karzai, an American protégé selected as President by the loya jirga national council earlier this year, escaped injury in the ambush that happened while he visited Kandahar.

A gunman wearing an Afghan army uniform opened fire on a motorcade carrying Mr Karzai and some of his senior officials. Mr Karzai's American special forces bodyguards returned fire and are believed to have killed three people. The gunman was last night reported to be Abdul Rahman, from a former Taliban stronghold in the south of the country who had joined the security forces of Gul Agha Shirzai, the governor of Kandahar, less than three weeks ago.

Mr Karzai had just left the governor's residence when the attack took place. The BBC reporter Lyse Doucet, who witnessed the shooting, said Mr Karzai was shot at moments after he leant from the window of his car to shake a boy's hand. "The President has had an extremely narrow, extremely lucky escape," she said.

Shortly before the Kandahar ambush, a car bomb killed 25 people and injured 150 others when it exploded in Kabul. The Foreign Minister, Abdullah Abdullah, said: "Al-Qa'ida, or at least elements of al-Qai'da, could be behind the attacks." Kabul's deputy police chief, Mohammed Khalil, also blamed the former prime minister, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.

Meanwhile, the Arabic television station al-Jazeera said it has obtained the first confessions from members of al-Qai'da saying the group was responsible for the 11 September attacks.