Kabul: A senior Afghan official was
killed on Wednesday when his vehicle was hit in a Taliban-style bomb
attack in the troubled southern city of Kandahar, authorities
said.
Five other people were injured in the attack on
Mohammad Hassan Timori, the provincial director of haj and
religious affairs, the interior ministry said.
Explosives had been planted on a motorcycle that had
been parked at the side of a road, it said, blaming the
bombing on "enemies of Afghanistan," a euphemism for the
Taliban.
The assassination was the latest in a deadly
Taliban-linked terror campaign that has been largely focused
on Kandahar, capital of the eponymous province which is the
focal point of the insurgency.
The Taliban`s 1996-2001 regime ended with a US-led
invasion but remnants of the Islamist movement have been
waging an increasingly vicious insurgency ever since.
Earlier this year they pledged to target foreign
forces -- of which there are 150,000 under US and NATO command
-- as well as all foreigners, foreign organisations and
Afghans associated with them.
Most recently candidates and others involved in
upcoming parliamentary elections have been the target of
Taliban attacks.
PTI
