UN chief slams killing of Afghan peacebroker

UNITED NATIONS: United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday slammed the killing of Afghanistan's peacebroker and former president Burhanuddin Rabbani in a Taliban suicide attack.

"I am deeply shocked. I condemn in the strongest possible terms this attack on people who were working to bring peace in Afghanistan," said a spokesman for the UN chief in New York.

Ban sent "heartfelt condolences to the families of the deceased and wounded" and underscored the UN's commitment to "supporting Afghanistan and its people attaining peace and stability and to working in close cooperation with them," his spokesman added.

A Taliban suicide bomber with explosives hidden in his turban had been invited into Rabbani's Kabul home with an accomplice because they were thought to be emissaries bringing "special messages" from the Taliban.

The bomb was detonated as the attacker hugged Rabbani -- head of Afghanistan's High Peace Council established last year by President Hamid Karzai to ramp up talks with the insurgents.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011