Sep 20 2011
LA Times: Former Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani assassinated
Reporting from Kabul, Afghanistan— Former Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani was killed by a suicide bomber on Tuesday in his home in the capital, the latest in a series of high-profile assassinations to rock the country in recent months.
Rabbani was the head of a government panel set up last year to try to begin negotiations with the Taliban, and his death was seen as a serious blow to those still-nascent efforts.
The bomber, who apparently had explosives concealed in his turban, entered Rabbani’s home in an upscale Kabul neighborhood on the pretext of visiting him, said Gen. Mohammed Zaher, the head of criminal investigation for the Kabul police.
The powerful blast injured at least two other people, Zaher said, possibly including at least one other member of the High Peace Council, as the reconciliation body was known.
The Associated Press reported that four of Rabbani’s bodyguards were also killed, but that could not be immediately confirmed.
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