KANDAHAR, Afghanistan ? The Taliban tried and failed to kill one of their most hated enemies late on Monday when the police chief of Kandahar Province, who is pursuing an aggressive campaign against the insurgents in their former southern homeland, survived a powerful suicide car bombing that killed four civilians and wounded 20 more, Afghan officials said on Tuesday.
The police chief, Gen. Abdul Raziq, was driving through the eastern part of Kandahar city shortly before midnight when his white armored car was targeted by a small truck packed with explosives, according to the Kandahar governor?s spokesman, Javed Faisal.
His vehicle was badly damaged. General Raziq was wounded, but not seriously, and his secretary and a police officer traveling with him were also injured in the attack. He was taken to a NATO hospital at Kandahar Airfield, one of the largest coalition bases in the country, Mr. Faisal said.
The truck used in the suicide attack was also carrying a container full of explosives on its roof, he said.
?The police chief was wounded slightly on his face and hands, but his condition is stable,? Mr. Faisal said. ?The explosion was heavy. It destroyed several shops and two houses.?
At the scene here in Kandahar on Tuesday, several shops had collapsed from the power of the explosion and two houses behind them had also fallen down.
Parts of the truck used in the suicide bombing ? its heavy wheels, and bits of iron, which had apparently been packed into the truck to increase the damage from the explosion ? were scattered around the area.
General Raziq, who is politically close to the government of President Hamid Karzai, formerly ran the border police in districts close to the Pakistan border around the city of Spinbaldak, where he earned a reputation for tough tactics as he secured the road from Spinbaldak to Kandahar and kept the Taliban at bay.
In return, he was allowed to operate with impunity and used his control of the border region around Spinbaldak to reap millions of dollars from smuggling, Pakistani officials alleged. General Raziq vigorously disputed the accusations.
He was appointed provincial police chief after his predecessor, Khan Mohammad, was killed by a suicide bomber at the police headquarters in April 2011.
As he has carried out operations against the Taliban, clearing districts around the province that had been under Taliban control or influence, he has continued to use his border police force.
There have been several other attempts on his life. In an attack earlier this year, a man with explosives attached to his body entered the police headquarters in Kandahar, pretending he had a petition for the police and asking to see General Raziq. He was directed instead to the criminal investigation office, where he detonated himself, killing several police officers but leaving General Raziq unhurt.
?For the Taliban, Abdul Raziq is the main and only obstacle,? said Haji-Abdul Matten, a tribal elder in Kandahar. ?He is tough against Taliban, and they have fought seriously against each other. I think Raziq is so important for Kandahar security. We have, somehow, security in his presence. Otherwise Taliban would have eaten people in the city.?
Other government officials have been targets of the insurgents? enmity. In January, the influential governor of the Panjway district was assassinated by a suicide bomber.
The Kandahar provincial governor, Tooryalai Wesa, was himself the target of an assassination attempt in April when two Taliban insurgents with pistols hidden in their shoes evaded detection by a full-body scanner at the governor?s office in Kandahar.
At a news conference at his office on Tuesday, Governor Wesa praised General Raziq and condemned the Taliban?s attack ?against our brave, powerful and courageous young general.?
?It doesn?t mean the enemy is using new tactics against us, but it indicates their weakness,? he said.
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