5 Ambushed, Killed in Eastern Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan - Suspected Taliban rebels shot and killed an influential former governor and four others Saturday in an ambush in eastern Afghanistan, police said.

Militants with AK-47 assault rifles attacked a car carrying ex-governor Taj Mohammed Qari Baba near his home in Ghazni city, said Ali Ahmad, the chief of the provincial police criminal investigation department. Two of his relatives, a bodyguard and driver were also killed.

Baba, believed to have been in his 60s, was a vocal supporter of Afghanistan's U.S.-backed government and a critic of the Taliban. He served as Ghazni's governor between 1992 and 1995 and in 2002, months after the U.S.-led invasion ousted the Taliban. Prior to that, he was a commander in the mujahedeen fighting Soviet occupying forces in the 1980s.

Two suspected insurgents were arrested near the site of the shooting and were being questioned, Ahmad said.

more:http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060318/ap_on_re_as/afghanistan;_

cleaned that place up years ago. Didn't Rummy say so?

:(

those people so damn crazy that they would even try it?

Taliban kill critic, attack Afghan governor

GHAZNI, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Taliban gunmen killed a powerful former governor of an Afghan province and four of his guards on Saturday, and hours later tried to kill the province's current governor.

The violence in Ghazni province, south of the capital, Kabul, came a day after nine policemen were killed in a blast as they were bringing back the bodies of four Macedonians kidnapped and killed by the Taliban and dumped in a valley.

Violence has increased in Afghanistan in recent months, especially in the south and east, as the Taliban and allied militants step up efforts to oust foreign forces and overthrow the Western-backed government.

Gunmen in a car shot Taj Mohammad, an outspoken opponent of the Taliban and a former governor of Ghazni province, near his home, said Habibullah Khan, administrative chief of the province's Andar district.

more:http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060318/wl_nm/afghan_violence_dc;_