Police hold 16 after two Afghan attacks

Afghan police and intelligence officers were questioning 16 suspects yesterday after Thursday's assassination attempt against President Hamid Karzai and the car bombing in Kabul that killed 25 people.

President Karzai's American bodyguards killed the gunman and two other men, both armed. One was an Afghan bodyguard for the president and the second was a bystander, officials said. The governor of Kandahar, Gul Agha Sherzai, was grazed in the neck by a bullet in the attack.

Police, who are questioning 14 people over the Kandahar attack, said the gunman was Abdul Rahman from Helmand province, a security guard for the governor's mansion. Officials said al-Qa'ida, the Taliban or the former prime minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar could have been behind the attack.

Two suspects were being questioned in Kabul after being linked to the taxi that exploded in a market area shortly before the assassination attempt.