A suicide bomber assassinated the governor of Paktika province and two aides outside his home Sunday, and the U.S. military warned that a terrorist cell had set up in Kabul to target foreign troops. The blasts brought the number of suicide attacks this year to at least 47, more than double the 21 recorded in all of last year, according to the Center for Conflict and Peace Studies, a Kabul-based think tank.
A Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility for the assassination, saying a man with explosives strapped to his body ran toward Taniwal's car and blew himself up.
CAPS director Hekmat Karzai says that, despite three decades of warfare, suicide attacks were unknown in Afghanistan until September 9, 2001, when two Arab al-Qaeda terrorists posing as journalists assassinated anti-Taliban commander Ahmad Shah Masood with a bomb hidden in a camera.
In the south of Afghanistan, NATO forces say they have killed at least 94 Taliban fighters in airstrikes and ground attacks, pushing the reported death toll from a nine-day counterinsurgency operation past 420. A top local official said the battle was winding down, and residents said hundreds of militants had fled the area.
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