Afghan Member of Parliament escapes assassination attempt

November 22, 2009 Afghan police have said that a member of parliament (MP) escaped an assassination attempt on Friday night near the capital of Kabul. Five bodyguards, however, died.

An Afghan district police chief told the Voice of America news agency that a remote-controlled bomb targeted the convoy of Abdul Rab Rasoul Sayyaf as it moved along roads outside the capital. It was not immediately clear who was responsible for the attack.

Sayyaf is an MP from the Kabul province, and a former warlord. This was not the first attempt on his life; he has survived at least one other similar attack.

Sayyaf was one of the ex-mujahideen leaders who fought against the Taliban in the mid-1990s. He became a strong supporter of Afghan President Hamid Karzai's government and the international forces after the United States-led invasion in 2001. The Human Rights Watch, however, has accused him of war crimes.