Deadly pre-poll attack hits Kabul

The suspected car bomb attack took place on a busy road A suicide car bomber has killed 10 people in an attack on a convoy of Western troops in the Afghan capital. More than 50 people were wounded in the explosion, which came despite heightened security ahead of Thursday's presidential election. A Nato soldier and nine Afghans, including two UN staff, died in the explosion, the Nato-led force said. Militants have threatened to disrupt the vote in which Hamid Karzai is tipped to be re-elected president. However, correspondents say he is facing a strong challenge from ex-Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah. Several dozen candidates are in the race.In other violence on Tuesday: • A rocket was fired into the presidential compound in the capital, Kabul; no-one was reported injured • Two US soldiers died in a roadside bomb in the east of the country • Two civilians and three Afghan soldiers died when a suicide bomber on foot blew himself up in southern Uruzgan province, police said • In the usually peaceful north, an election candidate was shot dead in Jowzjan province, and three poll workers were killed in Badakhshan when their car hit a bomb In a statement, President Karzai said such attacks would not deter Afghans, who would vote "despite the efforts of the enemies and will show their opposition to their barbaric acts", reports Reuters news agency. Body parts The Taliban claimed responsibility for the Kabul suicide blast, which targeted a convoy of foreign troops near a bustling market on the busy Jalalabad road. Nato's International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) said in a statement: "Updated reports indicate those killed were one Isaf service member, seven Afghan civilians and two Afghan civilian employees of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan." An Associated Press reporter at the scene saw British soldiers, who were securing the site, collecting what appeared to be body parts from the roof of an Afghan home. "I was inside my shop and then it collapsed on me, so I walked away. There were a lot of dead bodies," shopkeeper Jawed Ahmad said. UN special representative Kai Eide said he was "greatly saddened" to learn that two Afghan UN staff members had died in the blast. The latest violence comes as a BBC investigation found evidence of electoral fraud and corruption ahead of the presidential election. Thousands of voting cards have been up for sale and thousands of dollars have been offered in bribes to buy votes, found the BBC's Ian Pannell. The Afghan Independent Election Commission, which is overseeing the ballot, has been accused of not doing enough to prevent abuses. But a senior commission official, Daud-Ali Najafi, denied to the BBC that voting cards were being sold, saying the cards could only be used be their rightful owners. Thursday's vote will be Afghanistan's second presidential election since the US-led invasion in 2001 toppled the Taliban regime.