One of Afghan President Hamid Karzai's vice presidential running mates in next month's elections escaped unhurt from an ambush by Taleban insurgents on Sunday, officials said. Mohammad Qasim Fahim, the former head of an alliance that toppled the Taleban in 2001, was ambushed on a road in northern Kunduz province where he was campaigning on Karzai's behalf for the Aug. 20 poll, said senior campaign official Zalmai Mujadidi. Kunduz governor Mohammad Omar said Fahim was travelling by road to adjacent Takhar province on Sunday afternoon when his convoy was attacked by insurgents. “Fahim is alive and fine,” Omar told Reuters in Kunduz. One of Fahim's body guards was wounded in the attack, in which an unidentified number of insurgents used small and heavy-weapons fire against Fahim's convoy, Zalmai Mujadidi said. Fahim, an ethnic Tajik and once a leading opposition figure, was nominated by Karzai as one of two vice presidential running mates in May as Karzai sought to solidify fragmenting support by drawing former opponents into his re-election campaign. It was the second attack on a candidate in less than a week. On Wednesday, Mullah Salam Rocketi, a former Taleban commander and now one of 38 candidates challenging Karzai, was also ambushed as he returned to Kabul after campaigning in northern Baghlan.
