KUNDUZ, Afghanistan — The police commander for Northern Afghanistan
and two German soldiers were among six people killed Saturday in a
suicide bombing at a provincial governor's office, officials said.
The
attacker struck shortly after a meeting at the office regarding
security in Taloqan, the capital of Takhar province, had finished. The
Taliban claimed responsibility in what was its latest example of
high-profile target selection.
The police chief, General Mohammed
Daoud Daoud, was a key figure in Afghanistan's recent history. A former
military commander of Ahmad Shah Massoud's Northern Alliance, he
oversaw the siege of Kunduz, the final major battle of the US-led
invasion that followed the September 11 attacks in 2001.
A former
deputy interior minister, when he was the top counter-narcotics
official in Afghanistan, Daoud had accused the Taliban of profiting
from the opium trade by forging an alliance with drug smugglers and
taxing farmers.
He also served at one point as governor of
Takhar, reportedly at the request of the British, who considered him
the country's cleanest governor.
The commander of NATO forces for
northern Afghanistan, German general Markus Kneip, survived Saturday's
attack, suffering slight injuries, defence minister Thomas de Maiziere,
who confirmed the two fatalities, told reporters in Berlin.
Three other German troops were wounded, he said.
A
provincial government spokesman said four Afghans, including General
Daoud, were killed and that the governor Abdul Jabar Taqwa was wounded.
Qutbuddin
Kamal, a senior aide to the governor, confirmed that Daoud had been
killed. "At the end of the meeting, when we wanted to leave, a suicide
bomber waiting in the corridor blew himself up," he said.
According to Zemarai Bashary, spokesman for the interior ministry, 12 people were wounded.
An
ISAF spokesman confirmed that it had troops among the victims, while
not specifying their nationality or whether they had been killed or
injured.
"The chief of the northern regional command was inside
the building and survived the attack," the spokesman told AFP,
referring to Kneip.
Daoud was appointed chief of police for northern Afghanistan last year.
Earlier, he had been part of the Afghan mujahedeen fighting against occupying Soviet troops.
The
Taliban has been fighting an insurgency against the government in Kabul
and its Western allies since it was ousted from power a decade ago.
"One
of our mujahedeen carried out the attack inside the Takhar governor's
complex during a meeting about security," Zabihullah Mujahid, a Taliban
spokesman, told AFP.
"Most (of the participants) were killed,
including General Daoud Daoud, who was chairing the meeting, the chief
of police (for Takhar province)" and German and American soldiers, he
said.
Takhar is normally a relatively quiet part of the
insurgency-wracked country, although earlier this month 12 people were
killed in Taloqan when police opened fire on 2,000 demonstrators
protesting against a NATO raid.
Neighbouring Kunduz province has
become a Taliban bastion in recent years, and has seen an increase in
the frequency of insurgent assaults.
Daoud's killing comes two
months before international troops are due to start handing over
control of security to local forces and withdraw from the country, a
process due to be completed by 2014.
The past week has seen a
series of similar suicide attacks or bombings. Eight US soldiers were
killed Thursday in two successive blasts in the southern city of
Kandahar, the spiritual hub of the Taliban, in one of the worst such
incidents in months.
This month's killing of Al-Qaeda leader
Osama bin Laden by US troops in Pakistan has led to calls for the
process of handing control to Afghan forces to be speeded up.
Afghan
President Hamid Karzai on Saturday reiterated an order to his defence
minister to prevent "unilateral operations" by foreign troops and move
to bring "special operations and night raids" under local forces'
control.
There are currently around 130,000 international troops, around two-thirds from the United States, stationed in Afghanistan. AFP