Afghan President Hamid Karzai narrowly escaped an assassination attempt in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar Thursday evening, just three hours after a powerful car bomb exploded on a crowded street in this capital city, killing at least 22 people and injuring scores more.

Afghan officials said they knew of no links between the two attacks, which were among the worst incidents of violence since the defeat of the Taliban militia and the installation of the Karzai government late last year. Vice President Abdul Qadir was assassinated in Kabul by unknown gunmen in July.

But the officials said they had been expecting possible terrorist actions this week because of two upcoming anniversaries of violent events that had a major impact on Afghanistan: the assassination of former Afghan militia leader Ahmed Shah Massoud last Sept. 9 and the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon last Sept. 11.

"The leaders of Taliban and al Qaeda are on the run, they are struggling for survival, they are trying to show their organizations are not fully destroyed," Foreign Minister Abdullah told journalists tonight. "This just strengthens our commitment and determination in the war against terrorism, and it is further evidence that the war against terrorism is far from over."

Karzai, who was in Kandahar for a family wedding, had just stepped into a car outside the provincial governor's office when a uniformed gunman opened fire directly in front of the vehicle, officials said. Karzai was uninjured, but Gov. Gul Agha Sherzoi, a passenger in the same vehicle, was wounded in the neck, and a U.S. special forces soldier guarding the president was also wounded.

Karzai's car was in a heavily guarded convoy, but large crowds had turned out to greet him, and the president had leaned out of his window to greet an Afghan boy when the unidentified gunman began shooting, according to news reports. American special forces guards leapt from a jeep in the convoy and fired, killing the assassin and two other people. Abdullah said an Afghan guard was also killed.

Afterward, Karzai spoke to journalists at the governor's guest house, saying,"I'm fine. I expect things like this to happen." Karzai, 44, has been protected by U.S. special forces since shortly after the assassination of Vice-President Qadir July 6. Karzai has no armed forces under his command, and the Afghan Defense Ministry and security agencies are controlled by his political rivals.

When news of the 6:30 p.m. attack on Karzai reached Kabul, the capital of 2 million was already reeling from the massive mid-afternoon explosion, which left an entire city block covered with shattered glass and bloodstains and sent thousands of panic-stricken people fleeing in cars and on bicycles from the crowded city center.

The impact of the bomb, planted in a parked taxi, was especially devastating because the narrow street in the heart of Kabul's downtown was filled with shoppers making purchases before the weekly Friday Muslim holiday, and because the device detonated just moments after a smaller bomb exploded nearby, drawing many onlookers to the scene.

The second explosion shattered windows in dozens of shops, offices and a hotel across the street, leaving dozens of bystanders with wounds from hurtling glass shards. Trails of bloody footprints led from the spot where a row of parked cars was charred black, and sidewalk vendors' stalls were reduced to rubble.

"I heard the first explosion and I went to the door to look. Then I heard a louder one and saw a big fire. People were lying on the street and screaming for help," said Najeeb Shahabi, 28, a California resident who was visiting his father's electronics shop a few feet from the blast. "It was a terrible experience. I want to go home to the States, and I think I won't come back."

Wounded people were loaded into taxis and rushed to half a dozen hospitals in the city, where doctors and survivors said between 80 and 100 people were treated for injuries. At least 10 were confirmed dead, but officials said tonight that the death toll was rising because many of the injuries were serious. Police stopped and searched hundreds of vehicles all afternoon, causing massive traffic jams.

An Afghan soldier looks at damaged cars following an explosion in a busy market area of Kabul, Afghanistan today that killed at least 12 people in the bloodiest attack here since the fall of the Taliban.

"This is the work of terrorists, of al Qaeda. It is a crime against Islam, against Afghanistan, against humanity," said Khalil Aminzada, a city police official at the bomb scene. "These groups were defeated, but now they are showing their terrible face again. If we do not destroy them, these things will keep happening."

The two attacks followed a series of smaller explosions that have occurred in Kabul since mid-August, including one bomb left at the Telecommunications Ministry, another inside a movie theater and a third next to a United Nations guest house. These blasts caused little damage and few injuries, and officials described them as warnings or harassment from unknown groups.

But today's bomb was clearly aimed at inflicting serious harm and sowing public panic in the capital, which is heavily patrolled by about 4,500 members of an international peacekeeping force while the fledgling government trains a national police force and army.

Both officials and witnesses speculated that the twin attacks were timed to coincide with the two anniversaries of the violent attacks last September, and especially with preparations for a series of public memorials for Massoud, a national hero who fought against Soviet occupation and Taliban rule and was killed by a bomb in Afghanistan's Panjshir Valley one year ago.

There were also suggestions that Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, the renegade former Islamic militia leader and one-time prime minister, might have been behind the attacks. Hekmatyar, who has been a fugitive since March and has previously called for a "holy war" against U.S. forces here, issued a taped message two days ago that called for Afghans to rise up against the government and against U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

"All true Muslim Afghans who want an Islamic government . . . must know it is possible only when the United States and allied soldiers are forced out. We must all unite and rise against them," Hekmatyar said in a tape delivered to news offices in Peshawar, Pakistan.

The message also said that international forces "cannot maintain law and peace" in Afghanistan, and it accused U.S. forces of waging "genocide" against ethnic Pashtuns by allying with ethnic Tajik militias in their anti-terrorist operations. Afghan and foreign military officials believe Hekmatyar may have formed an alliance with the remnants of Taliban and al Qaeda forces still hiding in the border areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

( September 6, 2002)