Female Afghan legislator survives attack

KABUL - A female Afghan lawmaker survived an attack on her convoy east of Kabul, but two of her bodyguards were injured, officials said Saturday.

Fauzia Kofi, who represents the northern province of Badakhshan in the lower house of parliament, was returning to the capital from the province of Nangarhar when the attack took place, Haseeb Noori, a spokesman for parliament, said.

The suspected militants targeted her convoy from a hilltop with small-arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades in Kabul’s Suroobi district, district chief Hazrat Mohammad Haqbeen said.

Two policemen accompanying the lawmaker were injured, the officials said.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid, speaking by phone from an undisclosed location, said their fighters targeted a vehicle in Suroobi district, killing all the occupants.

At least 10 Afghan members of parliament have been killed in direct attacks or suicide bombs since the formation of the first elected parliament in late 2005.

In a separate incident, a rocket hit an area in eastern part of Kabul city Saturday, but it was not known if there were any casualties, police said. The rocket landed near a US military base on Jalalabad road.