KABUL (AFP) - A Taliban spokesman said all 18 candidates in Afghanistan's presidential elections were "top targets" for attack, and claimed responsibility after a rocket landed near a school President Hamid Karzai was about to visit.
"All presidential candidates are our top targets now because they are running for the polls of a US-made election -- an election which will create a government in the interest of the Americans," Taliban spokesman Abdul Latif Hakimi told AFP by telephone from an undisclosed location.
"We claim the responsibility for the rocket attack today in Paktia aimed at President Karzai but he was lucky, the rocket missed him."
Karzai had to abort a visit to the southeastern province of Paktia after a rocket landed two kilometres from a school where he was due to speak, forcing him to turn back to Kabul.
The incident highlighted how security concerns will hamper President Karzai's ability to campaign in next month's elections.
"It was a remote-controlled rocket. Because of time limitations we could not fire more rockets, but this will continue in the future," Hakimi added.
Karzai's spokesman earlier said an investigation was underway to find out if Karzai was the target of the attack.
Hakimi said the Taliban had called on the "Afghan nation to boycott the election and not vote because this is not going to be the type of government Afghan's want."
Taliban loyalists have vowed to disrupt the election and also claimed responsibility for a bomb attack on a US security firm which provides President Karzai's guards in Kabul late last month.
At least three US citizens and six others were killed in the bomb blast and there have been a string of attacks on government officials, aid workers and UN and electoral staff by militants bent on disrupting the polls.