Karzai escapes assassination bid

Afghan President Hamid Karzai escaped an assassination bid on Thursday when a rocket was fired at his US military helicopter as it was landing in the south-eastern town of Gardez.
The most serious challenge yet to an October 9 presidential election, for which the Taleban claimed responsibility, came as Karzai's rivals called for the vote to be delayed by at least a month, saying security worries made campaigning difficult.
"A rocket was fired at President Karzai as his helicopter was landing," said US military spokesman Major Mark McCann. "It missed and landed about 300 metres from a school in the vicinity of the landing area."
Witnesses said the rocket flew over Karzai's helicopter, and a crowd of about 400 supporters gathered to meet him at a school, as he was about to touch down, but caused no injuries.
The Afghan President's campaign trip, his first outside Kabul, was immediately aborted and he was flown back to the capital, the US military and Afghan officials said.
The incident was the most serious known threat to Karzai since he escaped a September 5, 2002, assassination attempt in the southern city of Kandahar.
After that attack Karzai's security was dramatically tightened and he has since rarely been seen in Afghanistan outside his heavily fortified presidential palace, where he is protected by US bodyguards.
Karzai treated the latest assassination attempt lightly and said he was more annoyed his security detail had aborted the trip and insisted him to return to Kabul. "Next time I will go secretly. I will not tell anyone," he told a news conference in the capital.
Karzai became President after a US-led invasion in 2001 toppled the Taleban, who were protecting Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda network, architects of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.
Taleban guerrillas, who have vowed to disrupt what will be Afghanistan's first ever direct presidential poll, quickly claimed responsibility, but the government said it was too early to say who was to blame.
Taleban military commander Mullah Abdur Rauf told Reuters the guerrillas learned of Karzai's trip on Wednesday and planned the attack. "Because of shortage of time, we could fire only one rocket. It was launched by remote control," he said.
The rocket exploded about one km (1/2 mile) from where Karzai's supporters had gathered to hear his speech. "Everyone was waiting, but then when the rocket boomed, everyone got very nervous and frightened," a witness said.
Presidential spokesman Jawed Ludin said earlier it was premature to say the rocket attack was an assassination attempt, although the incident was under investigation.