The Taliban has claimed responsibility for the assassination of the Mayor of Kandahar, further undermining confidence in the government to provide security in Afghanistan, which is passing through a deep political and economic crisis.
A suicide bomber detonated explosives carried under his turban killing Mayor Ghulam Haider Hamidi and another person, said an official spokesman. The Taliban, which has taken responsibility for a recent string of assassinations, said on Wednesday it carried out the latest strike.
Witnesses said the attack took place when Mr. Hamidi, a close confidant of President Hamid Karzai, was addressing tribal elders who had come to discuss a land dispute. Apparently, the suicide bomber had infiltrated this group. Mr. Hamidi had called the meeting to quell public uproar over the death of two children during a demolition he had ordered of illegally built homes.
The Mayor was reportedly the victim of a flaw in the security protocol, which allows visitors to be body-searched but leaves their headgear untouched.
Analysts say Mr. Hamidi's killing is causing nervousness within Afghanistan as it shows the authorities are unable to protect even the most high-profile individuals, despite a spate of recent killings. On July 12, the President's half-brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai, one of the most powerful individuals in southern Afghanistan, was killed by an assassin who had been allowed a face-to-face meeting with him. Last week, Jan Mohammad Khan, a member of Mr. Karzai's inner circle and a former Governor of the Uruzgan province was killed.
These killings are particularly demoralising because they have taken place at a time when confidence is running low in the government.
The opposition has been livid with the President for removing 62 Lower House members over allegations of ballot fraud. Parliamentarians, by way of retaliation, have impeached the Attorney-General and five Supreme Court Justices. They have also refused to pass a legislation that would have released an initial $73-million instalment of the money required to bail-out the controversial Kabul Bank, Afghanistan's largest lender.
In the absence of bailout legislation, the IMF is refusing to clear the Afghan annual plan and without the IMF's nod, foreign donors are withholding millions of dollars of badly needed aid.
Afghanistan's non-Pashtun minorities are also expressing consternation regarding the opacity of proposed talks to end the conflict, which so far excludes them but involves the United States, the President and the Taliban. More than half of Afghanistan's population is a patchwork of non-Pashtun ethnic groups, including Tajiks, Uzbeks and Hazaras.
