KABUL (AFP) - Seven people including two US soldiers died in explosions in Afghanistan, officials said, as early results from historic elections gave President Hamid Karzai a strong lead over his rivals.
Three rockets were also fired in the capital, injuring one woman and damaging an apartment building, in the latest of a string of attacks since last Saturday's poll.
Security experts had warned of a possible resurgence of violence after the election, which was largely peaceful despite threats of attack from loyalists of the hardline Islamic Taliban regime ousted in late 2001.
The US military said two US troops were killed Thursday in a landmine blast in the southcentral province of Uruzgan, a hotbed of a Taliban-led insurgency, while an Afghan soldier was killed in a mine explosion in western Herat.
Another four people, including three children, were killed in eastern Kunar province late Friday when a remote-controlled bomb exploded after a crowd had gathered near a truck that had been set alight as it was delivering food to US bases, an Afghan official said.
Karzai condemned Friday's attack, which fell on the first day of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, as "inhuman and un-Islamic."
US military spokesman Scott Nelson said meanwhile that US troops and the Afghan government would "maintain vigilance and maintain security and a high presence" to deter face-saving attacks by militants in the wake of their failure to disrupt the polls.
Vote counting started in most areas on Thursday after a delay caused by allegations of irregularities.
It resumed Saturday after a break Friday for the start of Ramadan and kicked off for the first time at regional counting centres in western Herat, eastern Jalalabad and Bamiyan.
With an estimated 2.6 percent of the total ballots counted, US-backed Karzai, the pre-poll favourite, was far ahead with a 72 percent of the vote.
He was trailed by former education minister Yunus Qanooni with 12.8 percent, the Afghan Joint Electoral Management Body said on its website.
In third place with 6.9 percent was Uzbek warlord Abdul Rashid Dostam and in fourth was ethnic Hazara military strongman Mohammed Mohaqeq with 2.1 percent.
Afghanistan's only female candidate Masooda Jalal was lying sixth with one percent of the votes almost level with little known Syed Ishaq Gilani at fifth also with one percent. The other 13 presidential candidate all had less than one percent.
The initial count included votes from only 11 of the country's 34 provinces.
The elections were marred by allegations of fraud and mismanagement after indelible ink used to mark voters fingers and prevent multiple voting was found to wash off.
An international panel of experts was appointed at the last minute to investigate around 100 complaints, averting a boycott called by disgruntled candidates, some of whom alleged the vote was rigged to favour Karzai, and opening the way for the count to begin.
US President George W. Bush and the international community have hailed the election as a success. US Secretary of State Colin Powell said it showed that democracy was also possible in Iraq.
The United States led the campaign that ousted the Taliban regime in late 2001. It was launched when the Taliban refused to surrender its ally Osama bin Laden, the head of the Al-Qaeda network accused of masterminding the September 11 attacks on the United States.