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Deadly pre-poll attack hits Kabul Deadly pre-poll attack hits Kabul
(about 1 hour later)
A bomb attack apparently targeting a Nato convoy in Afghanistan has killed at least seven people, two days before the country's presidential election. A suicide car bomber has killed seven people in an attack on a convoy of Western troops in the Afghan capital.
The dead include Nato soldiers and Afghans working for the UN, officials in Kabul say. The bomb - the second suicide attack in three days - comes amid raised security in Kabul for Thursday's election.
Dozens were also hurt in the blast on the outskirts of Kabul - the second suicide attack in three days. The Nato-led force said reports indicated some of its troops were among those killed and injured, while the UN said two of its employees were killed.
Militants had threatened to disrupt Thursday's vote in which Hamid Karzai is tipped to be re-elected president. A few hours earlier, a rocket was fired into the presidential compound in Kabul; no-one was reported injured.
The BBC's Hugh Sykes, in Kabul, says the attacks demonstrate that determined militants can penetrate Kabul's election security. In southern Afghanistan, in Uruzgan province, a suicide bomber on foot blew himself up at a checkpoint, killing three Afghan soldiers.
He says the bombings are likely to make people nervous about going to vote on Thursday. I saw wounded people and dead people everywhere SawadShopkeeper class="" href="/2/hi/south_asia/8207315.stm">Afghan election fraud is unearthed
Witnesses said the bomb detonated near a bustling market, and children were among the wounded. Militants have been threatening to disrupt Thursday's vote, in which Hamid Karzai is tipped to be re-elected president.
"It was a suicide attack... targeting a supply convoy of foreign forces," Kabul police chief Sayed Abdul Ghafar Sayedzada said, according to AFP news agency. The BBC's Hugh Sykes, in Kabul, says the bombings are likely to make people nervous about going to cast their ballot.
In a statement the UN's envoy to Afghanistan, Kai Eide, said he was "shocked and greatly saddened" at the death of two of his staff members. Witnesses said the Kabul suicide blast on the notorious Jalalabad road struck the convoy of foreign troops near a bustling market, and that children were among more than 50 people wounded.
"I condemn completely those responsible," he said. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.
Correspondents say Thursday's vote is taking place amid an upsurge in violence across the country. An Associated Press reporter at the scene saw British soldiers, who were securing the site, collecting what appeared to be body parts from the roof of an Afghan home.
It is Afghanistan's second presidential election since the US-led invasion in 2001 toppled the Taliban regime. "I saw wounded people and dead people everywhere," a shopkeeper named Sawad told Reuters news agency.
"It was a suicide attack... targeting a supply convoy of foreign forces," Kabul police chief Sayed Abdul Ghafar Sayedzada told AP news agency.
Two Afghan UN staff were feared killed in the attack.
"I am shocked and greatly saddened to have learned that two of my staff members were among those killed in today's suicide bombing," UN special representative Kai Eide said in a statement.
Thursday's vote will be Afghanistan's second presidential election since the US-led invasion in 2001 toppled the Taliban regime.