Taliban guerrillas made a failed attempt to kill Afghan President Hamid Karzai with a rocket attack on Sunday, narrowly missing a building where he was giving a speech, Taliban and government spokesmen said.
Rockets fell several hundred metres from the government building southwest of Kabul and some of the audience began to flee, but Mr Karzai urged them to stay and finished his speech, a government official and a witness said.
No one was hurt and Mr Karzai, who has already survived two assassination attempts in recent years, was whisked away after his speech under heavy security, the witness said.
Several helicopters operated by Western forces, part of Karzai’s security arrangement, were hovering above the site of the meeting at the time of the strike, he added.
A Taliban spokesman, Qari Mohammad Yousuf, said the Taliban knew that Mr Karzai would be attending the meeting in Andar district of Ghazni province and they fired 12 rockets.
Mr Karzai has been leading Afghanistan since the Taliban’s removal from power by US-led forces in 2001, but his critics call him “mayor of Kabul” because they feel his power does not extend beyond the capital, which is fortified by foreign troops. Mr Karzai usually travels under tight security by his US-trained Afghan bodyguards and foreign forces.

30 militants dead
Meanwhile, Taliban insurgents attacked a western Afghan district, sparking a 14-hour battle which resulted in the death of 30 militants and two police, police said on Sunday.
Around 200 fighters from the ultra-Islamic movement attacked a district of Badghis province on Saturday afternoon. The fighting continued until Sunday morning, provincial police chief Mohammad Ayob Niazyar said.
“Thirty Taliban were killed in the battle. Unfortunately two police were also martyred in the fighting,” he said.