Karzai warned of plot to kill him: Security chief

President Hamid Karzai was warned of a weekend assassination plot against him, Afghanistan's intelligence chief said yesterday, while admitting failings by security services that allowed militants to launch the attack.

Meanwhile, a suicide assault killed 16 people, including 12 police, in an eastern province, officials said. Forty-one people were wounded.

Afghanistan's three top security officials lost no-confident votes but still retained their jobs after Amrullah Saleh told Parliament the plot to kill Karzai was hatched last month. The gunmen had rented the hotel room they opened fire from 45 days before the attack, he said.