(RTTNews) - Police authorities in Afghanistan said Friday Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, a powerful former warlord and a current parliamentarian, had escaped an attempt on his life near the capital city of Kabul.

They said Sayyaf's convoy was struck by a remote-controlled roadside bomb hidden in an irrigation canal in Paghman district, north of Kabul. The explosion destroyed one car in the convoy, killing two of his bodyguards. Sayyaf reportedly escaped the assassination attempt unharmed.

Sayyaf is a former ethnic Pashtun warlord who supported the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance between 1996 and 2001. He became a member of the Afghan parliament in 2005, and is a close ally of President Hamid Karzai.

The attempt on Sayyaf's life came just a day after Karzai was sworn in as the country's President for a second term in the presence of hundreds of Afghan and international guests, including Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Also on Friday, at least 16 people were killed and dozens injured when a suicide-bomber on a motorcycle blew himself up in a town in Afghanistan's south-western province of Farah. The attack took place in the area of Ada heart when heavy trucks were being loaded up with goods to be transported to neighboring Herat province.

The attacks came as the Afghan security forces, along with a coalition of foreign troops under the command of NATO and the United States, were struggling to contain a revived Taliban insurgency. Attacks on civilians and security forces have increased considerably in recent months, with international troops passing through the worst phase of their eight-year-old operations in Afghanistan.

A day earlier, another suicide-bombing killed at least ten people and wounded 13 in southern Afghanistan. The suicide bomber detonated his explosives-packed vest in a crowded market in Dehrawad district of Uruzgan province after security forces foiled his initial attempts to attack an army convoy. The casualties were civilians.

Presently, there are some 110,000 foreign troops from more than 42 countries in Afghanistan under the commands of the NATO and the United States fighting Taliban insurgents, with the US topping the list with about 62,000 soldiers.

by RTT Staff Writer

For comments and feedback: contact editorial@rttnews.com