Taliban attack legislator in Kandahar

The attackers struck as legislator Zarghona Kakar and her husband stopped at the traditional roadside bakery in Kandahar province.

Suspected Taliban gunmen on motorbikes ambushed a female provincial councillor's car in southern Afghanistan, killing her husband, police said on Wednesday.

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The attackers struck as legislator Zarghona Kakar and her husband stopped at the traditional roadside bakery in Kandahar province on Tuesday, provincial police chief Esmatullah Alizai said.

Kakar was unhurt but the gunmen mowed down her husband as he left the car to buy bread, he said.

"Police have launched a serious investigation into the incident but have not arrested anyone so far. The men who carried out the attack covered their faces and were not recognised," Alizai said.

Alizai blamed the "enemies of Afghanistan" for the attack. Afghan officials use the term to refer to the Islamist Taliban movement that has been leading an increasingly violent insurgency since being ousted in late 2001.

Kakar is one of three women in the male-dominated council for Kandahar province, which was the birthplace for the Taliban regime.

In September the women's affairs director of the volatile province was killed in a similar attack. Safia Amajan died on September 25 when motorcycle-borne gunmen sprayed her car with bullets as she went work.

Police arrested a man who confessed to the assassination of Amajan. He was a former member of the radical Hezb-e-Islami militia led by wanted former premier Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and had been offered $4,000 for the killing.