Taliban Claim Killing of 7 in Afghan Province, Including New Attorney General

The newly appointed attorney general of Logar Province, just one hour into his job, was among seven people killed on Sunday when two Taliban insurgents attacked as his inauguration ceremony was ending, Afghan government officials said.

Salim Saleh, the spokesman for the governor of Logar, said the insurgents attacked the location of the ceremony in the appeals court building in Pul-i-Alam, the provincial capital, at 10:30 a.m., killing the new attorney general, Akram Nejat, and four other government employees as well as two civilians. Twenty-three others were wounded.

The episode was the third court-related attack in Afghanistan in the past two weeks.

The Taliban immediately claimed responsibility for the Logar attack. Zabihullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, said the attack was revenge for the government’s execution of six Taliban prisoners last month, the first such executions in years.

Ahmad Nader Naderi, a senior adviser to President Ashraf Ghani, said that Mr. Nejat was one of more than 100 new judicial officials appointed in an anticorruption drive.

The appointments were reviewed personally by Mr. Ghani, who took the news of Mr. Nejat’s assassination hard, Mr. Naderi said. “Tell his family I’m very saddened,” Mr. Naderi quoted the president as saying.

Read More- New York Times

Image courtesy of khaama