Suicide Bomber Kills Afghan Peace Envoy

Posted April 6th, 2012 at 11:15 am (UTC-5)
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Authorities in eastern Afghanistan say a suicide bomber has killed the head of a provincial peace council and his son.

The peace envoy was on his way home from Friday prayers in Kunar province at the time of the attack. Their bodyguard was wounded.

The peace council works to bring Taliban fighters to the negotiating table to find a political settlement of the 10-year Afghan war.

Last year, a suicide bomber killed the national head of the High Peace Council, former President Burhanuddin Rabbani, That attack was Afghanistan's most notorious assassination since the U.S.-led invasion ousted the Taliban.

In southern Afghanistan, officials say a NATO fuel tanker crashed Friday, killing seven people and injuring three others.

The tanker flipped over and burned in the Panjwayi district of Kandahar province. A passing minivan was engulfed in the flames.

Elsewhere in southern Afghanistan, NATO says a bomb blast Thursday killed one of its service members. Another coalition soldier was killed Friday in an insurgent attack in the east.

And NATO says it is investigating the cause of a drone crash Friday in northern Afghanistan. The coalition said initial reporting indicates there was no enemy activity in the area and that no one was injured in the incident.