This time he lived. But can Karzai stay lucky?

The shadow of death has fallen across Hamid Karzai many times in his tempestuous life and, considering the violence prevalent in Afghanistan, the latest assassination attempt on the President is unlikely to be the last.

The shooting in Kandahar came after a car bomb in the centre of Kabul killed 25 people outside government ministries yesterday. It was condemned by the UN secretary general, Kofi Annan. The UN predicted that the attacks would bolster global efforts to improve security in the country.

The shooting was the fourth time the Afghan leader's life had been in danger. He was almost killed twice last year during the campaign to overthrow the Taliban and al-Qa'ida – on one of those occasions inadvertently by his US mentors.

The American influence in Mr Karzai's life is now overwhelming, despite his strenuous attempts to prove he is not a poodle of Washington. After yesterday's ambush, American bodyguards fired on and killed three of the attackers, and the American-led international force is keeping him and his government in power.

The assassination attempt, and the bomb blast hours earlier, drew swift reactions from Washington and London.

President George Bush was informed of the attempt and expressed relief that Mr Karzai was unhurt. A spokesman for Tony Blair said: "The Prime Minister has sent a message to Hamid Karzai expressing his shock at today's attack in Kandahar and the bombings in Kabul."

A taxi containing the bomb was parked near the ministries of information and communications when it exploded in Kabul. The blast was preceded by a smaller explosion, intended to draw people onto the streets in an attempt to cause the maximum number of deaths and injuries, police said.

Members of the International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) helped Afghan security officials and emergency services after the blast. Local people said a number of Western nationals might have been among the wounded.

Witnesses said thousands of people fled Kabul's central business district after the second explosion. Pieces of flesh, sandals and scraps of clothing littered the road. Hundreds of windows were shattered in nearby buildings. "When I came to the scene, I saw five dead bodies," a construction worker said. "I could hear wounded people through the smoke shouting and calling for help."

Since taking over the interim government, Mr Karzai has lived with the constant threat of retribution from remnants of Taliban and al-Qa'ida. Earlier this year, Western intelligence agencies claimed to have foiled several attempts to attack the presidential palace.

But while Mr Karzai has survived, some allies have been less fortunate. A Vice-President, Haji Abdul Qadir, was shot dead in Kabul in July, and the Defence Minister, Marshal Mohammed Fahim, narrowly escaped death in a bomb attack in Jalalabad. The Civil Aviation Minister, Abdul Rahman, was beaten to death at Kabul airport.

A small, elite US military force was assigned to guard Mr Karzai in late July after speculation that government leaders would be assassinated. Fifteen American soldiers were assigned at that time to provide round-the-clock security at the presidential palace alongside Mr Karzai's existing bodyguards from the Northern Alliance, the most powerful faction in his coalition government.

Donald Rumsfeld, the US Defence Secretary, said when the move was made that the security job for American soldiers could last for several months.

Mr Karzai has further personal experience of the violence of Afghanistan. His father, Abdul Ahmad Karzai, chief of the Popolzai tribe, was assassinated by a Taliban agent in the Pakistani city of Quetta in 1999.

One of Mr Karzai's brushes with death came last November. With Mullah Omar's Taliban regime hanging on despite intensive American bombing, Mr Karzai secretly slipped across the border from Pakistan into southern Afghanistan in an effort to organise an uprising by his fellow Pashtuns.

The mission was highly dangerous and of a type that had already ended fatally for his friend Abdul Haq, a commander seen by the West as another post-Taliban leader. Mr Haq was betrayed, captured and hanged by the Taliban.

The Taliban also discovered Mr Karzai and his men, about a hundred of them. After a six-hour gun battle with an enemy force five times as large, he managed to escape. Exactly how that happened is a matter of dispute. Mr Rumsfeld says he was rescued and flown to safety by an American helicopter but Mr Karzai insists that he made his own escape after the Americans bombed the Taliban.

Soon afterwards, Mr Karzai narrowly escaped being killed by the Americans when they bombed him and a group of Pashtuns by mistake during an assault on an al-Qa'ida position. While receiving treatment for injuries to his head, Mr Karzai received the news that he had been elected as the interim leader of Afghanistan by the Bonn conference.

Eight years previously, Mr Karzai had survived another attempt on his life. He and several associates were travelling inside Afghanistan when they were ambushed. The driver was killed and a number of others were injured.

The men who ordered his murder on that occasion sat with him at the loya jirga national council earlier this year, in which the composition of the present government was hammered out.

After the death of Abdul Haq, Mr Karzai became Washington's favoured choice of Afghan leader. The Tajik- dominated Northern Alliance was not deemed suitable to form the government in a country where 40 per cent of the population is Pashtun. Mr Karzai, who is of royal Pashtun blood, fitted the bill.