KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, Jan. 29 (UPI) -- A man wearing an explosive vest slammed his motorcycle into a car carrying the deputy governor of Afghanistan's Kandahar province Saturday, officials said.
The suicide attack killed Deputy Gov. Abdul Latif Ashna and injured at least five others, the BBC and China's Xinhua news agency said.
The attack, which the Taliban announced it had staged, happened in the provincial capital of Kandahar City, where U.S. ambassador Karl Eikenberry was visiting, the BBC said.
He called the assassination a "setback," but said the majority of Afghans were on the road to establishing security.
Kandahar City is considered sacred to the fundamentalist Muslim Taliban, as it's the birthplace of its founder, Mullah Omar.
Since 2002, a U.S.-led NATO force of tens of thousands of international troops have been fighting both Taliban and al-Qaida insurgents throughout Afghanistan.
