An Afghan provincial governor and former cabinet minister was among four people killed in a bomb blast near Kabul yesterday, police said. Taliban insurgents later claimed responsibility.

Logar governor Abdullah Wardak, a commander of one of the armed factions that helped US troops overthrow the hardline Islamist Taliban in 2001, died on a dirt road outside his home in Paghman, 20 km west of the capital.

Police gave varying accounts of the attack. Senior Kabul police officer Ali Shah Paktiawal said Wardak was killed when a remote-controlled device was detonated next to his car.

Earlier, Logar police chief Ghulam Mustafa Mohseni said Wardak had been killed in a suicide attack.

"The governor was leaving his house for the office," Mohseni told Reuters by telephone from Logar. "The suicide bomber was waiting near his residence. As the governor came out with his driver, he was targeted and killed."

Mohseni had no further details.

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