Afghan officials say Interior Minister Bismullah Khan was the target of an assassination attempt Sunday in Parwan province, north of the nation's capital, Kabul.

A spokesman for the provincial governor say the minister's bodyguards shot a would-be suicide bomber who approached the minister's convoy. The minister was not there at the time of the attack.

There have been a series of high-profile killings during the year in Afghanistan, including the assassination in July of the president's powerful half-brother, Ahmad Wali Karzai, who was killed by a security guard at his home in the southern city of Kandahar.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has been the target of at least three assassination attempts since becoming Afghanistan's leader in 2002.