KABUL, 23 August 2007 — The governor of the eastern Afghan province of Khost survived an assassination attempt yesterday when a suicide attacker rammed his explosive-laden vehicle into the governor’s convoy, killing four and wounding eight others, police said.
“The bomber missed the governor’s car and instead hit another vehicle in which (Arsala) Jamal’s bodyguards were sitting,” said Mohammad Ayub Khan, provincial police chief.
Zemarai Bashary, Interior Ministry spokesman said “two civilians and two of governor’s guards were killed and another eight including three bodyguards and five civilians were wounded.”
Bashary said that the attacker who was driving a Corolla packed with explosives, was also killed in the attack.
Video image by TOLO TV showed the wreckage of the vehicle on fire, while US forces in the province cordoned off the site of the attack.
He said that the wounded people were evacuated to hospital and their injuries were not life threatening.
The attack came as Gov. Jamal was returning from a visit to Khost’s Alisher district, Khan said.
In a separate incident, two Afghan National Army soldiers were killed and 11 soldiers for the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) were wounded when insurgents attacked a NATO base in eastern Afghanistan, the ISAF said in a statement. The attack took place at 5 a.m. yesterday when a group of suspected insurgents wearing Afghan National Army forces’ uniforms, attacked the NATO base in Nuristan province, the statement said.
“This is another example of the Taleban extremists ignoring international law of armed conflict,” ISAF spokeswoman Lt. Col. Claudia Foss was quoted in the statement as saying.
All casualties were evacuated immediately following the fighting to nearby ISAF medical facilities, it said, adding that their injuries were “not life threatening.”
Also yesterday, the ISAF said seven Italian soldiers were injured when their helicopter made an emergency landing near Kabul.
Technical problems were cited as the reason for the incident involving the Italian aircraft Tuesday, an ISAF spokesman said.
