After Many Attempts on His Life, Karzai Confidant Killed

A bomb planted inside a mosque killed the governor of Afghanistan's eastern Logar province as he was delivering a speech this morning to mark the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha. The explosion at the main mosque in the provincial capital of Puli Alam killed Governor Arsallah Jamal and wounded 15 people, five of them critically, said the governor's spokesman. Jamal, 47, was a close confidant of President Hamid Karzai and served as his campaign manager during the 2009 presidential elections.

A high-profile target, he had survived a number of assassination attempts in the past, including with suicide bombings. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack but the Taliban have been targeting Afghan officials, military, and NATO troops as part of their campaign to retake territory as international troops draw down ahead of a full pullout at the end of 2014. (More Eid al-Adha stories.)