KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) – A powerful member of President Hamid Karzai’s Cabinet threatened to quit after a suicide car bomb attack targeted him yesterday, killing five people, in the latest Taliban attempt to destabilise Afghanistan’s struggling government. Two Americans were among six NATO troop deaths elsewhere.

Shortly after the bombing in the western city of Herat, Energy Minister Ismail Khan railed against the dramatic rise in violence in Afghanistan, saying that thousands of new refugees are seeking shelter in Herat because of militant attacks in outlying districts. Five civilians died in the

failed assassination attempt, police said.

Two days ago, Khan said, a young man was hanged by militants only a couple kilometres outside a NATO base and Afghan government centre. Kidnappings of wealthy family members are on the rise, including the abduction of girls, he said.

Khan said government security agents had warned him that insurgents planned to target him. Two earlier assassination attempts had been foiled, he said.

“Very clearly I want to say that if the government does not form a clear strategy to bring peace and security, and the situation continues like this, I will not participate in the Cabinet anymore,” Khan said.

Taliban assassination attempts against Afghan officials have intensified this year, with more than 100 officials and pro-government tribal elders attacked – half of them fatally.

Echoing a strategy of insurgents in Iraq, the targeted violence undermines the weak government and drives educated and

competent Afghans away from official posts.

The convoy carrying Khan, a powerbroker in Herat and former governor of that western province, was headed to the airport when a suicide car bomb exploded outside a high school, said Raouf Ahmadi, a police spokesman. Khan said five civilians died and 17 people were wounded, including four of Khan’s bodyguards.

A Taliban spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid, claimed responsibility and said the target was Khan.

The Taliban assassination campaign is a strong sign of deteriorating security in the country, where a record number of US and NATO troops have also died this year. The Obama administration is now debating whether to send more American troops to Afghanistan as its government faces allegations of widespread fraud from the disputed August 20 presidential election.

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates issued a stern warning to critics of a continued troop presence in Afghanistan yesterday, saying the Islamic extremist Taliban and al-Qaeda would perceive an early pullout as a victory similar to the Soviet Union’s humiliating withdrawal in 1989 after a 10-year war.

“Taliban and al-Qaeda, as far as they’re concerned, defeated one superpower. For them to be seen to defeat a

second, I think, would have catastrophic consequences in terms of energising the extremist movement, al-Qaeda recruitment, operations, fundraising, and so on. I think it would be a huge setback for the United States,” Gates said in an interview broadcast yesterday on CNN’s State of the Union.”

But many Americans are sceptical of sending more troops to support a government in the midst of recounting votes from a tainted presidential election. Karzai currently has about 54 per cent of the vote. If enough questionable ballots get thrown out he could drop below the 50 per cent threshold needed to avoid a run-off.

Karzai’s main challenger, Abdullah Abdullah, said yesterday he was satisfied so far with the recount, which is using a sampling of votes to speed the process and meet a narrowing timeframe to hold a possible run-off before winter snows block much of the country.

“We will follow up that process step by step till, God willing, a government acceptable to you comes to power,” he told a crowd in Kabul.

Two US service members died Saturday in the country’s south – one from a roadside bomb explosion and the other from an insurgent attack, the NATO-led force said yesterday. A British soldier died yesterday from a bomb explosion while patrolling in southern Afghanistan, Britain’s Defence Ministry said.

PR police: Man kills woman, shoots son, 5, in head

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) – Puerto Rican authorities detained a man suspected of killing his partner and shooting their five-year-old son in the head.

The 24-year-old woman was found early yesterday at their home in the Rio Piedras suburb of the capital, San Juan, police said. The boy was in critical condition.

A suspect detained in the shootings denied attacking the pair, according to police spokeswoman Maria del Pilar Bon.

The US Caribbean territory of nearly four million people has recorded 650 killings so far this year, 56 more than during the same period in 2008.