Violence in Afghanistan: gunmen on motorcycle kill ex-police chief

Gunmen firing from a motorcycle killed a former police chief as violence surged in a southern Afghanistan Taliban stronghold, police said Friday.

Photo: Violence in Afghanistan: gunmen on motorcycle kill ex-police chief

Abdullah Khan was killed Thursday afternoon while driving his car in Argandab, a town in the southern Zabul province about 160 kilometers (100 miles) northeast of Kandahar, said Zabul province Police Chief Ghulam Nabi Malakhail.

Two unidentified gunmen on a motorcycle fired at Khan's car and then fled the scene, said Malakhail.

No motive was known for the slaying of Khan, who was replaced 18 months ago as a district police chief in Zabul, which borders Pakistan.

Police late Thursday also raided a home and detained three suspected Taliban members in Zabul's provincial capital of Qalat, about 60 kilometers (40 miles) south of Argandab, Malakhail said.

It was not immediately clear if the detained men had been involved in any of the recent spate of attacks across southern Afghanistan targeting either foreign troops or local security forces.

The United States, which leads a 21,000-strong coalition of international forces hunting Taliban and al-Qaida militants in Afghanistan, believes that militants now pose the greatest threat to the new Afghan government since late 2001. Washington expects attacks to increase in the coming months, reports the AP.

I.L.