Afghan Attacks Claim 11 Lives

Gunmen killed a former Taliban leader who had renounced the extremist regime after it was ousted in 2001 and supported Afghanistan’s U.S.-backed government, officials said.

In a spate of other violence blamed on holdouts from the former regime, 10 people were killed and 41 wounded -- 40 of them in two bombings targeting people celebrating the Muslim feast of sacrifice, Eid al Adha.

Two men on a motorbike shot Mohammed Khaksar, the former Taliban deputy interior minister, in the heart and head Saturday as he was walking with two of his children in the southern city of Kandahar, a former Taliban stronghold, police chief Gen. Abdul Wahid said.

Khaksar secretly contacted the U.S. in 1999 to seek American help in stopping the Taliban, and renounced the movement after its collapse. In September, he ran as a candidate in legislative elections but lost.

A purported Taliban spokesman, Qari Mohammed Yousuf, called Associated Press to claim responsibility.

“He was a traitor to our cause,” Yousuf said. “We will kill all Taliban members who do this.”

The government has encouraged the Taliban to go through a formal reconciliation program; so far, about 300 rank-and-file members and about 50 senior officials have done so.

The shooting comes after the deadliest year of insurgent violence since 2001, with about 1,600 people killed.

On Saturday, two blasts ripped through crowds of civilians in the eastern province of Khowst as they were celebrating Eid al Adha, said Amir Pacha Ramatzi, a local doctor. One person was killed and 40 wounded.

Police blamed the Taliban and said the blasts were caused by two land mines attached to detonators -- one hidden in a local fair and the other in a music shop. Militants on Friday fired on an Afghan-U.S. patrol and an ensuing battle killed six rebels, military spokesman Lt. Col. Jerry O’Hara said.

In another clash, militants attacked an Afghan army checkpoint in the eastern province of Paktia on Saturday, the Afghan Defense Ministry said. One soldier and two suspected Taliban rebels were killed.