Suicide bomber targets Afghan MP, kills 1

KABUL, Dec 22 (Reuters) A suicide bomber targeting an Afghan member of parliament killed one person and wounded at least seven more in Kabul today, police said.

The MP, Padshah Khan Zadran, escaped unhurt when the man with explosives strapped to his body threw himself at the politician's car.

At least three of Zadran's bodyguards were wounded in the attack, along with five passers-by. The vehicle was destroyed by the blast, and the street in the capital was stained with blood.

Alishah Paktiawal, from the police crime branch, said one of the wounded later died in hospital.

He said the assassination attempt had come just a day or so after police foiled another death plot against the politician.

Kabul was hit by a series of suicide attacks between August and October that killed several people, mainly civilians.

This year has seen the bloodiest fighting since US-led troops ousted the Taliban's strict Islamist government in 2001.

More than 4,000 people, about a quarter of them civilians, have been killed as the insurgency gains strength, with the Taliban bolstered by money from the illegal drugs trade and by safe havens in neighbouring Pakistan.

As winter snows block passes and make fighting hard in many parts of the country, leading to a traditional lull, the Taliban has pledged to step up suicide bomb attacks.

Although common and devastating in Iraq, the tactic was rarely used in Afghanistan until this year. About 200 people have been killed in such blasts, compared with only a handful in 2005.

REUTERS SP VV1610