Afghan minister survives assasination

Islam Times: Security guards have shot dead the suicide bomber responsible for Sunday's attempted assassination in Parwan.

According to officials, the attacker attempted to detonate the explosives on a convoy of vehicles sent in advance of Khan's car heading towards Panjshir Valley.

"The minister was in another convoy around 15 or 20 minutes behind the first convoy," spokesman Siddiq Siddiqui said.

However, the bomber was shot before he was able to detonate himself.

Panjshir is a stronghold of anti-Taliban resistance, which was hit for the first time by a suicide attack last week.

Khan who was appointed as interior minister last June, is an ethnic Tajik former anti-Soviet commander who fought against the Taliban with late Ahmad Shah Masood.

Last month, former Afghan president and the chief broker of peace with Taliban, Burhanuddin Rabbani was assassinated in his house in Kabul.

The security situation continues to deteriorate in Afghanistan despite the presence of nearly 150,000 US-led forces in the war-torn country.

The US-led war in Afghanistan, with civilian and military casualties at record high, has become the longest war in US history.