A suicide bomber targeting an Afghan provincial governor killed six police bodyguards and the governor's son today, the provincial police chief said.
The governor escaped unhurt from the attack which came as he was on his way to work in the town of Zaranj, next to the Iranian border, in the southwestern Afghan province of Nimruz.
Fifteen people were wounded in the attack.
Taliban insurgents have killed more than 200 people in more than 140 suicide attacks this year in a campaign to undermine public confidence in the ability of the Afghan government and its Western backers to provide security.
More than six years after US-led and Afghan troops toppled the Taliban for refusing to give up al-Qaeda leaders in the wake of the September 11th attacks, Afghanistan still suffers from daily violence and clashes across much of the south and east.