Afghans look at the wreckage of a vehicle after a roadside explosion on the outskirts of Laghman province east of Kabul, Afghanistan, Sunday, Aug. 12, 2011. A provincial spokesman says a roadside bomb has killed a district chief in eastern Afghanistan and three of his bodyguards. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)
Afghans look at the wreckage of a vehicle after a roadside explosion on the outskirts of Laghman province east of Kabul, Afghanistan, Sunday, Aug. 12, 2011. A provincial spokesman says a roadside bomb has killed a district chief in eastern Afghanistan and three of his bodyguards. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)
Afghans look at the wreckage of a vehicle after a roadside explosion on the outskirts of Laghman province east of Kabul, Afghanistan, Sunday, Aug. 12, 2012. A provincial spokesman says a roadside bomb has killed a district chief in eastern Afghanistan and three of his bodyguards. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)
Afghan traffic police look at the wreckage of a vehicle after a roadside explosion on the outskirts of Laghman province east of Kabul, Afghanistan, Sunday, Aug. 12, 2012. A provincial spokesman says a roadside bomb has killed a district chief in eastern Afghanistan and three of his bodyguards. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)
Afghans look at the wreckage of a vehicle after the roadside explosion on the outskirts of Laghman province east of Kabul, Afghanistan, Sunday, Aug. 12, 2012. A provincial spokesman says a roadside bomb has killed a district chief in eastern Afghanistan and three of his bodyguards. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)
An Afghan man pushes parts of a destroyed vehicle off a hill after a roadside explosion on the outskirts of Laghman province east of Kabul, Afghanistan, Sunday, Aug. 12, 2012. A provincial spokesman says a roadside bomb has killed a district chief in eastern Afghanistan and three of his bodyguards. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) ? A roadside bomb killed a district government chief and three of his bodyguards Sunday in eastern Afghanistan, officials said.
The Afghan government's top official in Laghman province's Alishang district was driving to a meeting with the bodyguards when his car was blown up in the road, provincial spokesman Sarhadi Zewak said. It was not clear if the bomb had been remotely detonated or if the vehicle ? a Toyota Corolla ? had struck some sort of trigger, he said.
Zewak said the provincial government believes district chief Faridullah Niazi was being directly targeted by insurgents.
Such targeted assassinations of people allied with the government or international forces have surged this year. The U.N. reported last week that civilian deaths from targeted killings jumped 34 percent in the first six months of 2012 to 255 people killed, compared with 190 in the first half of 2011. The victims have ranged from police officials to village elders who have worked on programs with international forces.
"Targeted killings, abduction and intimidations have created a climate of fear among officials and deter them from taking up positions and working in these areas," the report said.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing, but it fit the pattern of Taliban assassinations of government workers. The Taliban have said that they do not consider people working with the government or supporting its programs to be civilians, saying that they are collaborators who have chosen to side with the enemy.
The bombing comes a day after an Afghan police officer killed 11 of his fellow officers in a remote corner of western Afghanistan. Officials said the shooter, who was killed in an ensuing gunbattle, was believed to have ties to militants.
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