Suicide bomber kills Afghan governor

A suicide bomber assassinated an Afghan provincial governor yesterday, as Nato said it killed almost 100 more Taliban fighters in its biggest offensive against the resurgent Islamist group.

Governor Hakim Taniwal, a former mines minister who once lectured in an Australian university, is the first provincial chief killed since the Taliban fell five years ago, although there have been many assassination attempts around the country.

His driver also died when the bomber threw himself on the governor of Paktia province, bordering Pakistan, as he was entering his car, police said.

The killing came as Nato said its forces and Afghan soldiers killed 94 Taliban insurgents in a battle in the southern province of Kandahar, the Taliban's heartland, in its biggest offensive against the rejuvenated Islamist movement.

Backed by close air support, the militants were killed in two areas of Kandahar in four encounters that started on Saturday and lasted until just after dawn yesterday, Nato said in a statement.

Nato did not say if there were any casualties among Nato or Afghan forces in the fighting in Zari and Panjwai districts.

Nato has encountered heavier-than-expected fighting since taking over southern Afghanistan from US-led troops on July 31 to allow Washington to reduce its forces.

If true, the latest casualties would bring to more than 400 the number of Taliban killed since Nato launched Operation Medusa just over a week ago.

The Taliban, which has dismissed Nato's casualty figures in Operation Medusa as propaganda, also rejected the latest toll.

"They are lying. If their figure was true, then they would have driven the Taliban from Panjwai and Zari by now," Qari Mohammad Yousuf, a Taliban spokesman, said by satellite phone from an undisclosed location.

Mr Yousuf said he had no information if the Taliban, who are usually behind suicide attacks, killed the governor.

About 20 Nato soldiers have been killed in the offensive, 14 of them British troops whose plane crashed in the opening hours.

On Saturday night, two coalition soldiers, one during the Medusa offensive and another in combat in the adjacent Zabul province were killed, Nato said in another statement.

Panjwai and adjacent Zari, flat, desert areas, lie southwest of Kandahar city and have been the scene of a series of battles between foreign forces and the Taliban this year.