Afghanistan’s intelligence chief injured in assassination attempt

Afghanistan’s intelligence chief, Asadullah Khalid, has been wounded in an assassination attempt after a bomb explosion targeted his guesthouse in the capital, Kabul.

According to Press TV, citing AP, the head of Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security (NDS) suffered injuries on the lower part of his body as a result of the terrorist attack on Thursday.
Khalid reportedly used his guesthouse for private meetings that he preferred not to hold at the official NDS compound.
Reports added that Khalid was rushed to a medical facility run by the intelligence service where he was given blood transfusions.
Khalid’s condition was not immediately clear. The Chinese news agency Xinhua quoted one Afghan security official as saying that Khalid had escaped the assassination attempt with slight injuries, but one Western diplomat told AFP that he was “seriously wounded” in the attack.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.
Khalid, a former minister of tribal and border affairs and ex-governor of two provinces, was appointed head of the intelligence service in September.
President Hamid Karzai nominated Khalid to head the NDS in August. He was later endorsed by Afghan lawmakers.
Amnesty International has called for an investigation into Khalid’s alleged involvement in cases of torture and unlawful killings during his tenure as governor of Ghazni province from 2001-05 and of Kandahar from 2005-08.