police chief of northern Afghanistan and three German soldiers were among seven people killed in a suicide bombing at the Takhar governor’s office on Saturday, an official said. “Seven people were killed and nine injured,” Faiz Mohammed Tawhidi, spokesman for the Takhar provincial governor, told AFP. “Three German soldiers and four Afghans, including General Mohammed Daoud Daoud and the chief of police (for Takhar province) were among the dead,” he said. Qutbuddin Kamal, a senior aide to provincial governor Abdul Jabar Taqwa, confirmed that General Daoud, who was a former deputy interior minister, and the provincial police chief had been killed, adding that the governor was injured.
“There was a meeting about security at the complex where the governor’s office is,” he said. “At the end of the meeting, when we wanted to leave, a suicide bomber waiting in the corridor blew himself up.” A spokesman for the Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack. A spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) confirmed that it had troops among the victims, without specifying whether they had been killed or injured.