Afghan suicide bomber kills Kandahar deputy governor

The deputy governor of Afghanistan’s southern Kandahar province, the spiritual home of the Taliban, was killed by a suicide bomber yesterday, the provincial chief said.

“Deputy governor Abdul Latif Ashna had just left his home and was on his way to his office when a suicide bomber on a motorcycle blew himself up near his vehicle,” said Kandahar governor Tooryalai Wesa.

One of his bodyguards and his driver were wounded, as were two passers-by, he added. A fifth person was slightly hurt and did not need hospital treatment.

“This is the work of enemies of Afghanistan, the Taliban. They kill anyone who is working for Afghanistan’s future, to rebuild the country,” the governor added.

A Taliban spokesman, Yousuf Ahmadi, claimed responsibility for the attack.

“One of our jihadists... blew up his motorcycle near the vehicle of Abdul Latif Ashna... killing the deputy governor and wounding his driver and four of his bodyguards. There were no civilian victims,” he told AFP.

A policeman at the scene, Abdel Ahmad, confirmed that a suicide bomber on a motorcycle blew himself up as Ashna left his residence.

Ashna, a trained engineer, had been deputy governor since April 2010. He previously worked for UN Habitat, the UN programme to improve the urban environment, before teaching at Kandahar University.

He also headed the provincial branch of the ministry of rural development.

Kandahar, the birthplace of Taliban leader Mullah Omar, is at the heart of a nine-year insurgency by the Islamic militants who were toppled from government by a US-led invasion after the September 11 attacks.

Besides foreign troops and Afghan soldiers and police, the Taliban also regularly target local officials whom they accuse of being traitors working with the international forces and the Western-backed Kabul government.

The deputy mayor of Kandahar, Noor Ahmad Nazari, was killed in October, six months after his predecessor was assassinated.

Governor Wesa himself survived a bomb attack on his convoy in November 2009.

Yesterday’s attack on the deputy governor came a day after a suicide bomber blew himself up in a central Kabul supermarket popular with Westerners.

Police yesterday said eight people, all Afghans, were killed in the blast, revising an earlier toll of nine and reports that three foreign women were among the dead.

“I can confirm that no foreign nationals were killed in yesterday’s attack,” said the head of Kabul’s criminal police, Mohammad Zahir.

Six of the victims were the son of a former Afghan senator, his rights activist wife and their four children, President Hamid Karzai said, offering his condolences to former senator Mahbooba Huqoqmal over the death of her son and his family.

The Taliban also claimed responsibility for the attack, which the militants claimed targeted employees of a private US security firm.

There are around 140,000 international troops, two-thirds of them from the US, in Afghanistan fighting the insurgents.