A suicide car attack killed at least five people in southern Afghanistan on Thursday, police and a hospital doctor said, the latest deaths in the bloodiest year since the Taliban was overthrown in 2001.
The blast occurred soon after a convoy of presidential security guards passed through Qalat, the provincial capital of southern Zabul province, on their way back to Kabul from a visit to the south by President Hamid Karzai.
Residents said they believed the guards were the intended target. The bomber's car hit the vehicle of a provincial police officer who was some distance from the convoy, a policeman said.