Don't Go Out

If the President of Afghanistan is smart, he'll stay in his home ....

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf's plane was fired on as it took off on Friday from a military airfield in Rawalpindi, an intelligence officer said, contradicting official denials.

Musharraf's plane arrived safely in the southwestern town of Turbat, where the president visited flood victims. The military denied there had been any attack.

But an intelligence officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there had been an unsuccessful attempt on Musharraf's life.

...

A Reuters photographer saw two large guns mounted on the roof of a two-storey house in the congested area close to the airport, and a neighbor said he heard the firing.

One appeared to be a long barreled anti-aircraft gun and the other a light machine gun.

They were placed between large satellite dishes and a water tank of the flat-roofed house, located directly under the flight path close to the runway. A low wall ran round the perimeter of the roof.

Security is normally deployed in the area ahead of the president's flights, the timings of which are generally kept secret.

Very slowly but steadily, Afghanistan is looking more and more like Iraq.