Leading Afghan peace council member killed

An assassin yesterday shot dead a former high-ranking Taliban official working on reconciling Afghanistan’s insurgency with the government — a fresh blow to peace efforts on the day Kabul announced it was gradually taking the lead from the US-led coalition for providing security in much of the country.

A gunman with a silenced pistol killed Arsala Rahmani as he was riding in his car in one of the capital’s most secure areas near Kabul University, police said.

The death of Rahmani, a top member of the Afghan peace council and a senator in parliament’s upper house, dealt a major setback to efforts to negotiate a political resolution to the decade-long war.