KABUL (AFP) - Afghan Vice President Nematullah Shahrani narrowly escaped a bomb attack in northern Afghanistan while two US soldiers were killed in a firefight in the south in the latest burst of violence ahead of next month's election.
The remote-controlled bomb attack on Sharani in northeastern Kunduz province came just five days after President Hamid Karzai escaped a rocket attack in southern Paktia province forcing him to abort his first election campaign trip outside the Afghan capital.
Sharani, one of Karzai's four vice presidents, was leading a convoy of senior government officials to open a road when the bomb exploded, officials said.
"Shahrani's car passed by, but the bomb hit another vehicle in which his bodyguards were driving," Kunduz governor Mohammad Omer told AFP by phone.
"A driver was slightly injured," in the attack which occurred shortly after 1:00pm (0830 GMT) some 230 kilometers (142 miles) north of Kabul, he said.
The attack comes just three weeks ahead of the country's first direct presidential election and underlines concerns about whether widespread violence from both Taliban-led insurgents and local militia commanders will mar polls.
Kunduz governor Omer blamed the attack on Taliban and Al-Qaeda operatives but the Taliban did not directly claim responsibility although a spokesman for the regime which was ousted by a US-led military campaign in late 2001 renewed his threats to disrupt the election.
"I have not been told anything about this particular incident but as we have announced in the past, Karzai, Karzai's cabinet and all the presidential candidates are our prime targets," Taliban spokesman Abdul Latif Hakim told AFP on a satellite call from an undisclosed location.
Hakimi added the Taliban were tracking the movements of all of Karzai's cabinet and that Shahrani was a target.
Meanwhile, two US soldiers were killed in a firefight in the troubled southeast, the US military said in a statement
Six Afghan National Army troops and two other US-led coalition soldiers were wounded in the clash in Paktika province which borders Pakistan, it said in a statement.
The US soldiers received minor injuries while the wounded Afghans were evacuated to the Salerno forward operating base 200 kilometres (125 miles) south of Kabul, the statement said without giving further details.
Paktika borders Pakistan's troubled South Waziristan tribal area where Pakistani forces are conducting operations against suspected foreign Al-Qaeda militants and their local supporters.
In other incidents, US-led coalition troops came under fire from militants earlier Monday north of Qalat in southeast Zabul province. They returned fire and the attackers suffered casualties, the military said without giving further details. There were no coalition casualties.
US-led troops also came under fire north of Deh Rawood in central Uruzgan province but there were no coalition casualties.
Meanwhile an Afghan soldier was wounded when coalition and Afghan troops were also attacked north of Naray, whose location was not given.
Afghan Interior Minister Ali Ahmad Jalali Saturday said Taliban militants and Al-Qaeda-led insurgents were preparing to step up attacks ahead of next month's presidential election and had set up bases along the porous border with Pakistan.
There are more than 17,000 US-led troops hunting militants in the south and east of Afghanistan and another 1,100 marines coming to Afghanistan to help with security for the October 9 elections.
In addition, some 7,500 NATO--led international peacekeepers are patrolling Kabul and some northern provinces.
The Taliban have vowed to derail upcoming elections in Afghanistan and pledged to attack all 18 presidential candidates.