A senior Taliban official lost his life in an explosion in Afghanistan’s northeastern Badakhshan province, marking the second fatal attack on a top provincial administrator within a fortnight.
Habib Ur Rahman Mansoor, the mayor of Badakhshan, was killed late Thursday when a blast struck his vehicle in Faizabad, the provincial capital, as confirmed by Afghanistan’s Interior Ministry. Authorities have yet to provide additional details regarding the incident.
Confirmation of Mansoor’s death came on Friday, just days before the Taliban’s fifth anniversary of regaining control on August 15, 2021, following the withdrawal of US and NATO forces from Afghanistan.
This attack follows closely on the heels of another killing about two weeks earlier, when Zabihullah Amiri, Badakhshan’s director of information and culture, was fatally shot while traveling toward Faizabad from a nearby district. Security forces accompanying Amiri returned fire, killing one assailant and capturing another.
No motives have been disclosed for either of these attacks. Although targeted killings of senior Taliban officials have been relatively rare since the group’s return to power, several prominent figures have faced threats and attacks in recent years.
In a significant development in December 2024, Refugee Minister Khalil Haqqani, a senior member of the influential Haqqani network and uncle to Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani, was killed in a suicide bombing in Kabul.
Badakhshan has experienced multiple attacks against Taliban officials previously. In June 2023, a car bomb in Faizabad killed the provincial deputy governor Nisar Ahmad Ahmadi along with his driver. The Islamic State Khorasan Province claimed responsibility for that bombing and a subsequent suicide attack at a memorial service for Ahmadi, which resulted in at least 13 fatalities.
Earlier in 2023, the Taliban-appointed governor of Balkh province was killed in a bomb explosion inside his office, underscoring the ongoing security challenges faced by the administration.
