World | Afghanistan
Afghan president's brother survives grenade attack
Rocket-propelled grenades and machinegun bullets rained down on a motorcade carrying the brother of Afghanistan's president on Monday in an apparent assassination attempt, the brother said.
- Agencies
- Published: 22:56 May 18, 2009
Kabul: Rocket-propelled grenades and machinegun bullets rained down on a motorcade carrying the brother of Afghanistan's president on Monday in an apparent assassination attempt, the brother said. A bodyguard was killed.
Ahmad Wali Karzai said his convoy was on the way back to Kabul from eastern Nangarhar province when gunmen attacked them in Surobi, a mountainous area about 40 kilometres from the capital. The younger brother of President Hamid Karzai was not harmed.
Wali Karzai was returning from a trip to the eastern city of Jalalabad, where he went on Sunday to thank Nangarhar Governor Gul Agha Sherzai for not running against his brother in this summer's presidential election.
Gunmen fired on the cars after they entered the Surobi pass, said Abdul Jalal Shamal, the Surobi district police chief.
"All of the sudden, we heard shooting," Wali Karzai said, speaking in English.
Two police officers were thrown from the pickup truck behind his vehicle, he said, adding that he only realised one of his bodyguards had been shot when they went back to collect the officers, who were unharmed. They rushed the bodyguard to a hospital, but he died while being treated.
Wali Karzai, who is the president of the provincial council of the southern Kandahar province, did not comment on who might want to kill him.
Kandahar province is the spiritual birthplace of the Taliban. The president has escaped several assassination attempts himself since he took power after the fall of the Taliban regime.
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