Afghanistan's Civil Aviation Minister Mirwais Sadiq, the son of the powerful governor of Herat province, has been killed in an ambush.
Fighting erupted in the western city of Herat immediately after the assassination, which a spokesman for Governor Ismail Khan blamed on forces loyal to a senior government commander in the province, Zahir Nayebzada.
The spokesman blamed the killing on "a personal rivalry".
Mr Sadiq was the third member of President Hamid Karzai's cabinet to be assassinated, and the second civil aviation minister to die since the government came to power in place of the Taliban in late 2001.
In February 2002, Sadiq's predecessor Abdul Rahman was assassinated at Kabul airport. Vice President and Public Works Minister Haji Abdul Qadir was shot dead at his office in July of that year.
In February last year, Minister for Petroleum and Mines Juma Mohammad Mohammadi died in an air crash off Pakistan.