Gunmen kill high-ranking Taliban official in Afghanistan in rare targeted attack

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Gunmen killed a high-ranking local Taliban official in Afghanistan’s northwestern province of Badakhshan on Tuesday in a rare targeted killing in the country.

Two gunmen shot Zabihullah Amiri, Badakhshan’s director of information and culture, as he headed from a local district to the provincial capital Faizabad, the Information Ministry said in a statement.

“Immediately following the incident, security guards opened fire on the attackers; one attacker was killed and the second was captured,” the ministry said, adding that authorities were investigating the killing.

Targeted killings of high-ranking Taliban officials have been rare since the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in 2021 in the wake of the withdrawal of U.S.-led forces.