(Top) Karzai salutes moments before the assassination attempt during the parade in Kabul on Sunday. (Below) Security members flee after the attack. (Reuters)

Kabul, April 27 (AP): Suspected Taliban militants attacked a ceremony attended by the Afghan President today, unleashing automatic weapons and rocket fire that sent foreign dignitaries and senior members of the government fleeing for cover.

Three people were killed, including a lawmaker, and eight wounded.

President Hamid Karzai, cabinet ministers and ambassadors escaped unharmed from the assault on the event marking the 16th anniversary of the end of Soviet-backed rule in Afghanistan. A lawmaker seated about 30 meters from Karzai was among the dead.

Karzai appeared later on national television saying several suspects had been arrested. He blamed the attack on the “enemy of Afghanistan” and appealed for calm. About 100 people were rounded up for questioning, an Afghan intelligence official said.

A Taliban spokesperson claimed responsibility for the attack. Six militants armed with suicide vests, guns and rockets were deployed to target the President, and three of those militants died in the attack, the spokesperson Zabiullah Mujaheed said.

A police officer who requested anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media, said security forces killed three gunmen who had opened fire from an apartment block not far from the ceremony. He said they confiscated assault rifles and machine guns. Government officials could not immediately confirm that information.

The attack on Karzai began as dignitaries stood for the national anthem in stands opposite Kabul’s main mosque. Hundreds of people fled in chaos as shots rang out. An Associated Press reporter at the scene said firing appeared to come from ruined houses a few hundred meters from where the VIPs were seated. A live TV broadcast of the ceremony was quickly cut.

Karzai was hustled away, surrounded by bodyguards, and left in a black SUV. Foreign dignitaries and cabinet ministers were also safe, Afghan and Western officials said.

The presidency said Nasir Ahmad Latefi, a local Shia leader and a 10-year boy died in the attack, and nine others including two lawmakers were wounded. One of the lawmakers, Fazel Rahman Samkanai, later died at a hospital, said defense ministry spokesperson General Mohammad Zahir Azimi.

The attack came despite unprecedented tight security for today’s celebrations.

For days Kabul was ringed by checkpoints with security forces and plainclothes intelligence officials searching vehicles. The area where the ceremonies took place had been blocked by troops, tanks and armoured personnel carriers, and was closed to the general public.

The live TV coverage of the assassination attempt will add to the sense of insecurity in the Afghan capital, which has been spared the worst of the violence as fighting has escalated between Taliban insurgents and Nato and US-led forces — leaving thousands dead last year.

It was the first militant attack in the city since mid-March.