Kabul - The governor of the southern Afghan province of Kandahar said Thursday that he was being sacked the central government following disagreements. General Rahmatullah Raoufi, who had served as army commander in the southern region before he was appointed governor, had replaced powerful and controversial former governor Assadullah Khalid in August.
Khalid had disagreements with NATO-led Canadian commanders in the province, and Canadian government officials earlier this year had asked President Hamid Karzai to remove him.
"I was told today that I am sacked and I should end my job in Kandahar," Raoufi told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.
"The thing is that I could not work in this province any more because of another (group of) powerful people," he said, but did not elaborate.
Local media said that Raoufi recently had an argument with Karzai's half-brother, Wali Karzai, who heads Kandahar's provincial council.
Kandahar, which was the former headquarters for Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar during their regime in 1996 to 2001, is the hub for the Taliban-led insurgency.
Meanwhile, in the south-eastern province of Khost, two suicide bombers attacked government offices Thursday morning, killing five security personnel and wounding ten, officials said.
A suicide bomber driving a vehicle packed with explosives detonated his car at the entrance of the intelligence building, killing two agents and wounding three, Tahir Khan Sabarai, provincial deputy governor, said.
Moments later, another suicide bomber who had strapped explosives to his body attacked the counter-narcotics department, located a few metres from the first attack site, killing three police and wounding four more police and three civilians, he said.
But a police official, who did not want to be named, had earlier said that a second car parked in front of the intelligence building was remotely detonated and then "eight militants in police and army uniforms stormed the intelligence building."
The police official could not give more details other than saying that an operation was ongoing to "kill or arrest the attackers."
Taliban spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid took responsibility for the attack and said 25 Afghan intelligence agents were killed in the attacks that were carried out by three suicide bombers.
Taliban often give higher number of death tolls for Afghan and international forces killed in their attacks.
Taliban, who were driven from power in late 2001, have recently relied heavily on suicide and roadside attacks as part of their war against the Afghan and some 65,000 international forces.
More than 100 suicide attacks have been carried out by the militants since the beginning of this year.
