A suicide attack killed the mayor of Kandahar, birth place of Taliban, just two weeks after killing the so-called “King of Kandahar”, Ahmed Wali Karzai.

A suicide attack killed the mayor of Kandahar, birth place of Taliban, just two weeks after killing the so-called “King of Kandahar”, Ahmed Wali Karzai.

Ghulam Haidar Hameedi died when a suicide bomber set off explosives hidden in his turban as the mayor spoke with citizens in the courtyard of the city hall, police General Abdul Raziq told AFP news agency.

Earlier, Hameedi was discussing a land dispute in which he had ordered some houses to be destroyed as they were built illegally, participants at the meeting told AFP.
Two children were reported killed on Tuesday while the houses were being knocked down.

For its part, Taliban claimed responsibility for the bombing, saying that a volunteer suicide attacker had come forward after the deaths of the children, and claiming that a woman was also killed.
"In a suicide attack by a (volunteer) in Kandahar municipality, mayor Hameedi... is murdered," said Taliban spokesman Qari Yosuf Ahmadi in a text message to AFP.

Born in 1947, Hameedi lived for many years in the United States before returning to Afghanistan in 2006 and being appointed to his post by Karzai.
He escaped an attack on his car in 2009, though his last two deputy mayors were both shot dead in 2010, and the Kandahar province police chief and the province's deputy governor have also been killed this year.

Wali Karzai, who was Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s younger brother, was a key strongman in the region and an alleged drugs baron.
The assassination of Wali Karzai, known as AWK, was predicted to trigger a turf war for control of southern Afghanistan that could reverse recent security gains made by the US-led military coalition.