Suicide Bomber Kills Anti-Taliban Elder

A police officer stands guard near bloodstains on the ground at the site of the bomb blast in Ghazni Province.

A suicide bomber has killed an anti-Taliban village elder and at least three other people in Afghanistan's central Ghazni Province.

Police said Habibullah Khan was killed along with two bodyguards and a civilian bystander when a teenage attacker on foot detonated his explosives in a busy marketplace in the district of Muqur.

Other officials said at least seven people were killed and more than a dozen were injured.

Khan reportedly led a tribal militia against the Taliban in his district.

Taliban insurgents have carried out a campaign of assassinations of pro-government figures and warned Aghans to distance themselves from the government.

Based on reporting by AP and AFP