Kandahar mayor killed in suicide attack (UPDATED)

KANDAHAR CITY (PAN): Kandahar City mayor Ghulam Haidar Hamidi was killed in a suicide attack in the municipality complex at 9:40 am Wednesday, Zalmai Ayubi, the Kandahar governor’s spokesman, told Pajhwok Afghan News.

The area has been cordoned off by Afghan and international security forces.

Kandahar acting police chief Brig. Gen. Abdul Razaq told Pajhwok Afghan News that the suicide attacker had planted explosives in his turban. 

He said the municipality had recently begun destroying private residences built on state land. Tribal elders were due to meet with the mayor about the issue today, he said.

He added that the suicide bomber was among these visitors and detonated his explosives-rigged turban at the meeting, killing the mayor and wounding one other person. 

This was the second time a suicide attacker had hidden explosives in his turban.

The first such incident occurred  at the memorial service of Ahmad Wali Karzai, the slain brother of President Hamid Karzai. The exlposion killed a number of people, including the head of Kandahar clerics council. 

Four employees of the Kandahar municipality, including two deputy mayors and two municipal guards, have been killed in recent months in a series of targeted killings in Kandahar, where assassinations are becoming more common.

The mayor is the second top Kandahar government official to be killed this month. Ahmad Wali Karzai was the first.

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