KABUL, Afghanistan - The governor of an important and volatile southern province in Afghanistan escaped an apparent assassination attempt Monday after a bomb exploded by his vehicle convoy, officials said.
The bomb, aimed at the convoy of Kandahar Gov. Asadullah Khalid, wounded three civilians, Khalid's office said in a statement. Khalid was not wounded.
Kandahar is the former stronghold of the Taliban movement and is a major producer of opium poppies. The province has seen fierce fighting involving U.S., NATO and Taliban forces the last two years.
The blast against Khalid's convoy follows a suicide bomb attack that killed the deputy governor of neighbouring Helmand province late last month as he was praying inside a mosque in the provincial capital of Lashkar Gah.
Militants have often attacked governors and other officials affiliated with President Hamid Karzai's government in an attempt to weaken the government's command over the country. Khalid has survived previous assassination attempts.
Khalid made the news in Canada recently when it was learned that Canadian diplomats in Afghanistan alleged that he was personally involved in the torture of prisoners captured by the military.
He denied the accusations.
The hundreds of Canadian soldiers serving in Afghanistan are based in Kandahar and the issue of prisoners captured by them has been a hot topic in Canada, with allegations that detainees turned over to Afghan authorities have been beaten and tortured.
Recent allegations prompted the Canadian military to temporarily end the transfers.
Also in the south on Monday, a militant cleric and two of his children were killed when a bomb he was preparing in his home exploded prematurely.
Mullah Abdul Wasay was tinkering with the explosives at his home Saturday night in Helmand province when they blew up, said provincial police chief Mohammad Hussein Andiwal. Wasay's wife and daughter also were seriously wounded, he said.
