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Popular Afghan governor killed

By TIMES WIRES
Published September 11, 2006

KABUL, Afghanistan - A suicide bomber assassinated the popular provincial governor of eastern Paktia province on Sunday, and the U.S. military warned that a terror cell has set up in the Afghan capital to target foreign troops.

Gov. Abdul Hakim Taniwal, a scholarly and soft-voiced man of 63, was a close confidante of President Hamid Karzai and a political figure known for skill at bringing hostile groups together in the country's volatile tribal regions near the Pakistan border.

In the south, NATO said it had killed at least 94 Taliban fighters in airstrikes and ground attacks, pushing the reported toll from a nine-day counterinsurgency operation past 420. A top local official said the battle was winding down, and residents said hundreds of militants had fled the area.

The wave of violence, on the eve of the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks on America, has cast a grim shadow over Afghanistan. The insurgency-wracked country is locked in its worst bout of fighting since the U.S.-led ouster of the hardline Taliban regime in late 2001 for hosting Osama bin Laden.

A purported Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility for the assassination of Taniwal outside his office in the town of Gardez at lunchtime Sunday. The former sociology professor had lived in exile for 15 years and returned from Australia in 2002.

"He was a great patriot who had fought against violence and corruption in Paktia, he brought tribes together, and he made a great contribution to the national reconciliation program," said Khaleeq Ahmad, a spokesman for Karzai. "It is a very sad day for Afghanistan to lose such a good man."

A man with explosives strapped to his body ran toward Taniwal's car and blew himself up, also killing Taniwal's nephew and bodyguard and wounding three police officers, U.S. and Afghan officials said.

Mohammed Hanif, who claims to speak for the Taliban, said the bomber was a local Taliban fighter and threatened more attacks.

The U.S. military said a suicide bombing cell was operating in Kabul, with the aim of targeting foreign troops. It was another sign that Afghan insurgents have adopted some of the terror tactics used in Iraq and are expanding their operations beyond the volatile south and east.

The warning came two days after a car bomber rammed into a U.S. army convoy near the U.S. Embassy, killing 16 people, including two American soldiers, in the worst such attack in the capital. Four days earlier, another suicide bomber in Kabul hit a British military convoy, killing one soldier and four Afghans.

"This cell is alive and working and remains very much a threat," Col. Tom Collins, the chief U.S. spokesman, said in Kabul. "Even though international forces may be the target, as we saw on Friday, the vast majority of victims are civilians."

In the south, where NATO says its Operation Medusa has killed more than 420 Taliban near Kandahar city since Sept. 2, residents said hundreds of Taliban had fled the area. Kandahar Gov. Asadullah Khalid said that the fighting was nearing a close and that Taliban militants were in flight.

But NATO spokesman Maj. Scott Lundy said it was too early for thousands of displaced villagers to return to their homes, which are believed to be badly damaged by bombing. He said operations would continue in Panjwayi until "we are certain the Taliban have been pushed out of the area for good and for all."

[Last modified September 11, 2006, 01:45:50]