Taliban fighters killed a senior member of Afghanistan's peace council, officials have confirmed.
President Hamid Karzai formed a 70-member High Peace Council in 2010 in a bid to reach a peace settlement, but little has been achieved, with the Taliban saying they will not talk with the Afghan Government.
Malim Shahwali, the council's chief in the southern province of Helmand, was travelling to the violence-plagued Gereshk district yesterday when insurgents ambushed his convoy, said the provincial governor's spokesman, Omar Zwak.
"First an explosion hit his convoy and then the Taliban gunmen opened fire, killing Malim Shahwali and two bodyguards," Mr Zwak said.
Three policemen and an Afghan soldier were wounded, he added.
The attack came a day after three British soldiers were killed in a roadside bomb attack in Helmand.
Last week, the Taliban vowed to start a new cam-paign of suicide attacks on foreign military bases, diplomatic areas as well as the "Karzai regime" as part of their spring offensive.
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