KANDAHAR: The deputy governor of Afghanistan's southern Kandahar province, the spiritual home of the Taliban, was killed in a suicide attack on Saturday, 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 very 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, the deputy governor of Kandahar, 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 to AFP that a suicide bomber on a motorcycle blew himself up as Ashna left his residence.Kandahar, the birthplace of Taliban leader Mullah Omar, is at the heart of a nine-year insurgency that 140,000 US-led NATO troops are battling to reverse in order to hand security control to the Afghan government by 2014.On Friday a suicide bomber blew himself up in a central Kabul supermarket popular with Westerners, killing at least eight people, including three foreign women.The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.
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