Karzai escapes assassination bid

Afghan President Hamid Karzai escaped an assassination bid yesterday when a rocket was fired at his US military helicopter as it was landing in the southeastern town of Gardez.

Just hours later, Mr Karzai said he was confident of winning next month's election and said foreign troops would stay in the country until it could take care for itself.

The most serious challenge yet to an October 9 presidential election, for which the Taliban claimed responsibility, came as Mr 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," US military spokesman Major Mark McCann said. "It missed and landed about 300 metres from a school in the vicinity of the landing area."

The rocket flew over Mr Karzai's helicopter as a crowd of about 400 supporters gathered to meet him at a school when he was about to touch down, but caused no injuries, witnesses said.

The 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 security is really over precautious," Mr Karzai said, adding he had wanted to land at Gardez to address the crowd.

The incident was the most serious known threat to Mr Karzai since he escaped a September 5, 2002, assassination attempt in the southern city of Kandahar.

After that attack Mr 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.

Mr Karzai complained at a news briefing that his US security detail had not let him stay in Gardez. He said foreign troops would remain in Afghanistan for some time to come. "We will have this force till Afghanistan is firmly on its own feet with regard to its security forces, with regard to its police, with regard to its national army, with regard to its economy, with regard to its government...