Taliban denies killing member of Afghan peace council
May 14, 2012 01:46 GMT
%reldate(2012-05-14T01:41:29
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- The Taliban is denying responsibility for the assassination of a top member of the Afghan peace council and a senator in Parliament, although they have publicly threatened to target peace negotiators and others working with the government.
Arsala Rahmani, a former high-ranking Taliban official working to end the war in Afghanistan, was shot to death Sunday.
Police say an assassin with a silencer-equipped pistol shot Rahmani, who was in his 70s, as he was riding in his car in one of the capital's most secure areas, near Kabul University. Police say the gunman fired from a car that pulled up alongside Rahmani's vehicle at an intersection.
The killing was another setback to U.S.-backed efforts to negotiate a political resolution to the war. Last September, a former Afghan president, who was head of the peace council, was assassinated in his Kabul home by a suicide bomber.
May 14, 2012 01:46 GMT
%reldate(2012-05-14T01:41:29
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- The Taliban is denying responsibility for the assassination of a top member of the Afghan peace council and a senator in Parliament, although they have publicly threatened to target peace negotiators and others working with the government.
Arsala Rahmani, a former high-ranking Taliban official working to end the war in Afghanistan, was shot to death Sunday.
Police say an assassin with a silencer-equipped pistol shot Rahmani, who was in his 70s, as he was riding in his car in one of the capital's most secure areas, near Kabul University. Police say the gunman fired from a car that pulled up alongside Rahmani's vehicle at an intersection.
The killing was another setback to U.S.-backed efforts to negotiate a political resolution to the war. Last September, a former Afghan president, who was head of the peace council, was assassinated in his Kabul home by a suicide bomber.

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