A suicide attacker fatally shot a senior intelligence official in eastern Afghanistan Wednesday and then blew himself up as guards tried to arrest him, an official said.
No one else was hurt in the explosion.
Maj. Mohammed Isa Khan, deputy intelligence chief of Khost province, was killed in the attack, said provincial government spokesman Hayatullah Taniwal.
The assailant stopped Khan’s car as he drove up to his office early Wednesday in Khost city, 90 miles south of Kabul, Taniwal said.
“When he opened the window to talk to him, he pulled a gun out from under his blanket and opened fire,” Taniwal said.
The man tried to flee, but three of Khan’s bodyguards gave chase. “Then he blew himself up,” Taniwal said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but the ousted hard-line Taliban movement has warned of a wave of suicide attacks in Afghan cities, a new tactic in their campaign against foreign troops and the U.S.-backed government of President Hamid Karzai.
Two soldiers — one Canadian, one British — from the international security force in Kabul were killed in separate suicide attacks last month.