Taliban kill Afghan spy official in volatile south
(Reuters)
Updated: 2005-08-04 14:54

Taliban guerrillas killed a local intelligence chief in a volatile southern Afghan province on Thursday in the latest incident of violence ahead of next month's parliamentary elections, local officials said, reported Reuters.

The official was gunned down in the Dai Chopan district of Zabul province by Taliban assailants.

"He was in the bazaar when Taliban attacked him and killed him," district chief Mohammad Zafar told Reuters.

Abdul Latif Hakimi, a Taliban spokesman, admitted that Taliban militants killed Rassoul.

The killing comes amid a rise in attacks by Taliban remnants in southern and eastern Afghanistan where hundreds of people, including 36 U.S. soldiers, have lost their lives since March.

It is the bloodiest violence since the Taliban's ouster in late 2001.

On Tuesday, Taliban fighters beheaded three locals in neighbouring Ghazni province after accusing them for spying for the U.S. forces.

A local election worker in Helmand province, adjacent to Kandahar, and eight Afghan security forces were killed in a separate militant-linked attack in an eastern province the same day.

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