KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Suspected Taliban rebels detonated a car
bomb near a mosque in southern Afghanistan, killing a deputy
provincial police chief and one of his bodyguards, while an aid
worker and an intelligence agent were slain in other violence,
officials said Friday.
Nafus Khan, the deputy police chief of Nimroz province, was
parking his vehicle next to a mosque late Thursday in the regional
capital, Zaranj, when he was killed by the car bomb, said Ghulam
Dastaqir, the province's governor. One of his bodyguards was killed
and another was injured.
Dastaqir blamed the attack on Taliban rebels.
Khan is the latest senior public figure to be killed in recent
weeks in attacks blamed on the Taliban. Others have included Muslim
leaders, top district officials and teachers.
The insurgents have stepped up attacks in the past half year,
killing more than 1,400 people and raising fears for the country's
fragile democracy. Until now, Nimroz had escaped much of the
bloodshed that has wracked other parts of southern Afghanistan.
In other violence, an intelligence agent was killed while riding
his bicycle home when a roadside bomb exploded in eastern Kunar
province, said provincial Gov. Assadullah Wafa. Kunar has seen some
of the fiercest fighting between Taliban rebels and coalition
forces.
In northern Faryab province late Thursday, gunmen on motorbikes
shot to death an Afghan aid worker and wounded three others as they
drove to the regional capital, Maymana, said provincial Gov. Abdul
Latif Ibrahimi.
