KABUL, Afghanistan – A deputy to American-backed President Karzai escaped a roadside bombing in northern Afghanistan yesterday, just four days after Mr. Karzai himself was targeted as he tried to hit the campaign trail for landmark October 9 elections.

Meanwhile, two American soldiers and several insurgents were killed in gunfights in the volatile southeast yesterday, further underlining fragile security ahead of the vote.

Nayiamatullah Shahrani, one of four Afghan vice presidents, and the urban development minister, Gul Agha Sherzai, were on their way to inspect a road project in northern Kunduz province when the explosion rocked their convoy, police said.

The remote-controlled bomb, hidden at a roadside in Khanabad district, damaged a car in the 20-vehicle convoy that was carrying Mr. Shahrani’s bodyguards, slightly hurting one of them with flying glass, the police chief, Mutaleb Beg, said.

Mr. Beg blamed “enemies” for the attack, but didn’t elaborate. No one was immediately arrested. The incident was confirmed by an aide to Mr. Karzai – who was in New York for this week’s annual session of the General Assembly at the U.N.

On Thursday, Mr. Karzai aborted his first major campaign event when suspected Taliban fired a rocket at the American military helicopter carrying him to a school opening in southeastern Afghanistan.

No one was hurt in that attack, but it underscored the threat against Mr. Karzai and his American-backed government in the face of a stubborn Taliban-led insurgency.