Female official, police chief killed in Afghanistan

Gunmen killed a female government official in Afghanistan on Monday.

Najia Siddiqi, acting director of Provincial Women’s Affairs, was killed by drive-by gunfire in Langham province Monday. Her predecessor, Anifa Safi, was killed in a bomb attack in July, according to The Associated Press.

No group had immediately claimed responsibility for the attack on Siddiqi.

A police chief in Nimroz, Gen. Mohammad Musa Rasouli, was also killed Monday in an explosion in Heart province.

His vehicle struck a roadside bomb, and he was rushed to the hospital, where he died of his wounds, the AP reported. The Taliban said it had targeted and attacked Rasouli.

U.S. commander in Afghanistan Gen. John Allen condemned both attacks Monday in a statement.

"This violence against government figures is an affront to peace and makes a mockery of any pretense of the insurgency being part of the future of Afghanistan,” Allen said.

The U.S. embassy in Kabul said that Siddiqi was killed on Human Rights Day.

“This attack, especially on Human Rights Day, shows that those who killed Ms. Siddiqi have no respect for human rights or the safety of the Afghan people,” the embassy said.

The two deaths of government officials come less than a week after the Afghan intelligence chief was wounded in a bombing assassination attempt in Kabul.

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