Afghan spy chief wounded in Kabul blast

Afghanistan's intelligence chief has been wounded in an assassination attempt in Kabul, the capital.

Asadullah Khalid, who heads the National Directorate of Security (NDS), was badly wounded when a suicide bomber posing as a peace messenget set off explosives at aNDS guest house, police said on Thursday.

The intelligence agency has confirmed the attack.

"The Afghan intelligence chief has survived a cowardly terrorist attack in the city of Kabul," said the NDS in a statement. "The case is under investigation."

Khalid was rushed into surgery but his life was not in danger, said presidency spokesman Aimal Faizi.

President Hamid Karzai visited the hospital where surgeons "assured the president that he is stable and his injury is not life threatening", the spokesman said.

Al Jazeera's Bernard Smith, reporting from Kabul, said that the Taliban are claiming to have penetrated Khalid's security.

"He was at one of their [the NDS] guest houses at Kabul this afternoon when there was an explosion that left him injured and needing hospital treatment, needing a blood transfusion," said Smith.

There were few details on the nature of the attack. Witnesses heard an explosion. Police said Khalid was wounded by a grenade, but unconfirmed reports by senior government officials said it had been a suicide attack.

Neither was his condition immediately clear, and there was no immediate word on what had happened to the attacker.

'Skeletons in his closet'

A former cabinet minister and a key anti-Taliban figure, Khalid was nominated to head the NDS by Karzai in August, and approved by parliament despite objections from Western rights groups and accusations that he tortured detainees.

His appointment was interpreted as part of an effort by the president to secure his power base before anointing a successor to stand for election in 2014.

"He comes with skeletons in his closet," said Smith.

"He was previously the minister of border and tribal affairs, and in that role, he was accused by others - including a Canadian diplomat - of being involved in torture and drug trafficking."

Amnesty International had urged parliament to delay its approval of Khalid, asking politicians to investigate claims of his "involvement in numerous alleged acts of torture and other grave human rights violations".

The NDS plays a crucial role in the fight against the Taliban, who were ousted from power by a US-led invasion in 2001 for harbouring Osama bin Laden, the former al-Qaeda leader, after the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington.

Their influence on the conduct of the war is likely to grow as the US and NATO withdraw the vast bulk of their combat troops from the country by the end of 2014 and hand responsibility for the war to Afghan security forces.

Afghan police and other security forces are increasingly targets of Taliban attacks as they take a bigger role in the fight ahead of the NATO withdrawal.