KABUL, March 12: A former Afghan president who heads a commission trying to encourage Taliban defections was slightly wounded in a suicide car bomb attack on Sunday that officials said killed two bombers and two civilians.

Sibghatullah Mujaddedi, also chairman of the upper house of parliament, was being driven on a busy main road when attackers detonated a car laden with explosives near his vehicle.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack on a man it called “an American puppet”, while Mr Mujaddedi himself blamed Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence (ISI).

Appearing at a news conference with bandages on his hands which he said covered burns from the blast, he said: “We had received intelligence from six channels that some individuals had entered Afghanistan to kill me by any possible means.

“Our biggest enemy today is Pakistan’s ISI,” he said adding that the network “was behind all of the attacks” carried out by Taliban and other militants in Afghanistan.

Pakistan’s foreign ministry rejected the charge.

“We condemn such attacks and loss of innocent lives,” said spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam. “These are baseless allegations and we reject them completely.”

Asked about Mujaddedi’s comments, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said the blast would be investigated. “We will reveal the investigation and then will speak about it,” he said.

Taliban military commander Mullah Dadullah said Mujaddedi sought to sow discord among the Taliban. “Attacks against American puppets will continue,” he said.

Two vehicles in Mujaddedi’s convoy were damaged in the blast about 500 metres from Kabul’s Intercontinental Hotel, which completely destroyed the car containing the explosives.

An interior ministry spokesman said two suicide attackers and two civilians were killed.

Earlier, Zalmai Oryakhel, the senior police officer for the area, said police suspected an Al Qaeda militant allied to the Taliban guerillas carried out the attack.

4 US SOLDIERS KILLED: Meanwhile, four US soldiers were killed after a blast ripped through their armoured vehicle, the US military said.

The soldiers were killed during a patrol on Sunday in the eastern province of Kunar, which lies close to the border with Pakistan, in an attack claimed by Taliban insurgents.

“The extremists that initiated this senseless attack create a significant danger and threat to the Afghan people,” said Major General Benjamin C. Freakely for the US-led forces in Afghanistan.

The attack marked the US military’s single biggest loss in a day in the country for several months and brought to 10 the number of US soldiers killed in Afghanistan this year.

A Taliban commander, Mullah Abdul Manan, said the attack was carried out through a remote controlled device by Taliban guerillas who are mostly active in southern and eastern areas of Afghanistan close to the border with Pakistan.

PAKISTANI ARRESTED: Afghan security forces have captured a Pakistani national suspected of links with Al Qaeda and Taliban militants in eastern Afghanistan, an official said on Sunday.

The man, identified as Haji Nader was captured on Thursday after authorities received intelligence that the man was crossing the border into the eastern province of Kunar, local security director Mohammad Hassan Farahi said.

He said that there was “strong and trusted intelligence” that the man was involved in several anti-government operations and that he was entering Afghanistan to train militants.

“We’ve strong and trusted intelligence that he was coming here to carry out attacks and train Taliban and Al Qaeda operatives,” he said.

According to intelligence sources in Kabul, the suspect from Dir district of the North Western Frontier Province of Pakistan was handed over to the US-led forces for questioning.

The source said that Nader was involved in making bombs used by remnants of the Taliban against US and Afghan troops.

ALBANIANS KIDNAPPED: Four Albanians and four Afghan colleagues have been kidnapped in southern Afghanistan, an official said on Sunday.

“We know that four Albanians have disappeared in Kandahar. We don’t know however who has kidnapped them,” Kandahar provincial governor Asadullah Khaled told repor-ters.

“We’ve launched an investigation to find them,” he said.

Yousuf Ahamdi, a man claiming to be a spokesman for Taliban insurgents, said his group had kidnapped the eight men and were awaiting further orders from Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar.

The company’s headquarters in Kabul confirmed that four of their Albanian employees and four Afghans had been kidnapped but had no details.—Agencies