Afghan governor is killed in blast

Taliban claim responsibility

KABUL, Afghanistan - An Afghan provincial governor and former Cabinet minister was among four people killed in a bomb blast near Kabul yesterday, police said. Taliban insurgents later claimed responsibility.

Abdullah Wardak, the governor of Logar Province, died on a dirt road outside his home in Paghman, 12 miles west of the capital. Wardak was a commander of one of the armed factions that helped US troops overthrow the Taliban in 2001.

Reports emerged last week that President Bush has approved more aggressive cross-border operations in Pakistan as part of a strategy to fight the resurgent Taliban in Afghanistan. The border region is considered a likely hiding place for Osama bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri.

Police gave varying accounts yesterday of the attack that killed Wardak. Senior Kabul police officer Ali Shah Paktiawal said Wardak was killed when a remote-controlled device was detonated next to his car.

Earlier, Logar police Chief Ghulam Mustafa Mohseni said Wardak had been killed in a suicide attack.

"The governor was leaving his house for the office," Mohseni said by phone from Logar. "The suicide bomber was waiting near his residence. As the governor came out with his driver, he was targeted and killed."

Paktiawal said Wardak's driver and two of his bodyguards were also killed in the blast, which he said was the work of "Afghanistan's enemies," a term often used by officials to describe Taliban insurgents and other militants.

A statement on the Taliban's website said they had carried out the attack, using a remote-controlled bomb.

After the Taliban's fall from power in late 2001, Wardak served as a government minister under President Hamid Karzai before becoming governor of Logar, where the Taliban and other militants are active.

He is the second provincial governor to be assassinated in recent years. Attacks against politicians, police, and civil servants are fairly common in Afghanistan.

Overnight, five rockets landed near a UN compound in the western province of Herat but caused no damage, an official said.

That attack came hours after authorities were forced to close the province's only airport briefly after two rockets landed on its perimeter, again without causing casualties or damage.

The Taliban rely largely on suicide attacks and roadside bomb blasts in their insurgency against the Karzai government and the foreign troops backing it. Nearly 3,000 people have died violently in Afghanistan this year, the bloodiest period since the Taliban's overthrow.

Late Friday, militants beheaded three men after accusing them of spying for the government in Ghazni Province, an official said.

Also on Friday, a NATO soldier was killed by insurgents in an attack in southern Helmand Province, the NATO-led alliance said.