'Suicide blast' targets Afghan MP

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A suicide bomber has blown himself up outside the home of an Afghan member of parliament in Kabul, police say.

Padsha Khan Zadran, an MP for Paktia province and an outspoken Taleban critic, was unhurt but five passers-by and three bodyguards were injured.

In a separate incident, five Afghan policemen were killed by a roadside bomb in southern Uruzgan province.

Afghanistan has seen over 100 suicide bombings in 2006, the bloodiest year since the Taleban were ousted in 2001.

Patrol

No group has said it carried out the suicide attack in the capital.

The BBC's Anu Anand in Kabul reports that witnesses said a teenage man wrapped in a red blanket approached a car and blew himself up.

District police chief Mohammad Khan Katawzi said the bomber must have thought the car was Mr Zadran's pulling out of his compound.

Mr Zadran blamed elements in Pakistan, who he says are trying unsuccessfully to infiltrate his province.

This is the first suicide bombing in Kabul since October when a series of explosions killed 17 people, including Nato troops and Afghan children.

Paktia's governor, Hakim Taniwal, was assassinated by a suicide bomber in September.

In a second incident on Friday, a roadside bomb ripped through a patrol car 10km (six miles) from Tirinkot, the capital of Uruzgan province.

Five policemen were killed, a provincial government official said.