Militants on Tuesday launched a suicide attack near an Afghan election commission office

Militants on Tuesday launched a suicide attack near an Afghan election commission office, police said, close to the Kabul home of a leading candidate for the presidential poll.
  
Blasts were heard mid-morning in the western Darulaman area of the Afghan capital near the house of Ashraf Ghani, who is seen as a frontrunner in the race to succeed President Hamid Karzai.
  
"It was a suicide bomb attack near an IEC (Independent Election Commission) branch office," Kabul police spokesman Hashmat Estanakzai said.
  
A member of Ghani's campaign team said the former World Bank economist was out of Kabul at the time, campaigning in the eastern province of Paktia. "The attack is not at doctor Ashraf Ghani's house, it is at another building nearby," the source said.

IEC spokesman Noor Mohammad Noor said security forces had told them their office may be the target of the attack. "We have spoken to our staff in that office, they are all fine and are in their bunkers," Noor said.

The Taliban have vowed a campaign of violence to disrupt the ballot on April 5, urging their fighters to attack polling staff, voters and security forces in the runup to election day.