Kunduz police chief assassinated

KUNDUZ – Kunduz Provincial Police Chief Abdul Rahman Sayedkhili and four others, including a woman, were killed when a suicide bomber blew himself up near Sayedkhili’s convoy in the northern province March 10.

“Sayedkhili’s deputy in the co-ordination department has also been killed,” Mahebubullah Saidi, spokesman for the Kunduz provincial governor, told Central Asia Online.

The bombing also killed two of Sayedkhili’s bodyguards and a woman. The blast wounded seven policemen, including the officer in charge of police headquarters security.

The Taliban has claimed responsibility.

Sayedkhili was assassinated after he made statements on the success of Afghan security forces in Kunduz.

Sayedkhili is the latest senior Afghan official to be assassinated in recent months. Last October, Muhammad Omar, Kunduz provincial governor, was killed with 14 others in a bomb explosion at a mosque in the neighbouring province of Takhar as he was praying. In January, a suicide bomber killed Kandahar Deputy Governor Abdul Latif Ashna while he was on his way to work.

The Taliban also claimed responsibility for Ashna's death.

Kunduz is the most unstable and violent province in northern Afghanistan. Omar had survived several assassination attempts. Last year, the Taliban killed his brother.

Sayedkhili was a prominent insurgent commander in the anti-Soviet campaign of the 1980s. He had been Kunduz police chief for six months. Previously, he served as police chief in two other provinces.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai strongly condemned the killing in a statement issued March 11.