KABUL, Oct 23 (AFP) - Afghanistan's presidential election count passed the 80 percent mark with Hamid Karzai holding on to his clear majority on Saturday, but any potential celebrations were cut short by a suicide bomb blast in Kabul.
At least seven people were injured in the attack, including three peacekeepers from the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).
Kabul police chief general Baba Jan said the suicide bomber walked into the crowded "Chicken Street", a shopping strip popular with foreigners, and blew up grenades that were strapped to his body at 3:30 pm (1100 GMT).
Taliban militants, which US forces had written off as a demoralised outfit after they failed to carry out promised attacks in the lead-up to the historic October 9 presidential polls, claimed responsibility for Saturday's bombing.
"We claim responsibility for all attacks against foreign troops in Afghanistan, as well as today's attack in Kabul," Taliban spokesman Abdul Latif Hakimi told AFP by satellite phone from an undisclosed location.
"We didn't attack the elections because we did not want to harm and kill innocent people, but the Americans and foreign troops are our enemies.
"There will be more attacks around the country such as today's attacks. We will remain an enemy of this government, we don't care if it is elected or selected."
Hakimi also said the Taliban, which ruled Afghanistan for five years until US-led forces ousted them in 2001, was responsible for a roadside bombing that injured a US soldier in in eastern Nangarhar province on Saturday.
The attacks overshadowed progress in the presidential election count, which US-backed interim president Karzai looked certain to win with 81.1 percent of the votes tallied by 5:43 pm (1313 GMT) on Saturday.
The latest tally released on the official electoral website showed Karzai had won 3,574,203 votes, or 54.6 percent, of the 6,628,072 ballots counted.
His nearest rival, former education minister and ethnic Tajik Yunus Qanooni, had 17.0 percent of the vote.
Hazara warlord Mohammad Mohaqiq was in third place with 11.1 percent of the vote after his vote climbed 0.7 percentage points throughout the day's counting.
Mohaqiq overtook Uzbek military strongman Abdul Rashid Dostam, whose vote fell 0.2 percentage points throughout the day to 10.7 percent.
Karzai needs about 500,000 more votes to attain the simple majority of 50 percent-plus-one votes to avoid a second-round run-off and his aides said they were confident this would be achieved.
"I wouldn't say that we are concerned," a presidential palace source said Saturday when asked about the possibility of Karzai's vote dipping below the key 50 percent figure.
Saturday's suicide bombing in Kabul was the most brazen attack following several other outbreaks of violence around Afghanistan since the peaceful polling day.
The post-October 9 violence has claimed at least 20 lives, including two US soldiers and three children.
That toll could rise following Saturday's attack, with one of the three injured ISAF peacekeepers listed as being in a critical condition, according to ISAF spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Patrick Poulain.
Interior ministry spokesman Lutfullah Mashal said an Afghan man was also killed in the attack, but police had yet to confirm the fatality.
"Our latest information is that two people were killed, one of them was the attacker and the other was an Afghan man," Mashal told AFP.
10/23/2004 14:59 GMT - AFP