A former Taliban militant, center, holds the national flag of Afghanistan...
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - Assailants gunned down a prominent anti-Taliban tribal leader as he praying in a mosque Tuesday in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, authorities said, in the latest in a steady campaign of assassinations of pro-government officials. Armed insurgents entered the mosque Tuesday morning and shot Mohammad Nahim Agha Mama as he worshipped, the Kandahar provincial governor's office said in a statement. A Pashtun tribal leader and local council member of the province's Dand district, Nahim was well-known in the province for urging his followers not to join the Taliban.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but the Taliban have killed hundreds of Afghan government officials and pro-government tribal leaders in recent years as part of wave of assassinations seeking to weaken confidence President Hamid Karzai's administration. The campaign has also targeted senior figures, including former President Burhanuddin Rabbani who was killed in September by a suicide attacker with a bomb hidden in his turban. The governor's office called Nahim's killing "an anti-Islamic and antihuman act," and said in a statement that he "was doing his best to bring peace and stability and that's why the enemies are killing those people."
They're sending the message be for us or die being against us.
