Top Afghan official killed in attack

Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) -- A bombing in northern Afghanistan that killed a top Afghan official and wounded a German general Saturday came as tribal leaders warned that insurgent attacks were discouraging some civilians from cooperating with security efforts, officials said.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing at a high-level meeting of Afghan officials and NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, the latest in a series of attacks that have rocked Afghanistan following the killing of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

During meetings last week with senior Afghan ministers and ISAF officials in the volatile Zabul province, civilians "cautioned that insurgent intimidation has discouraged cooperation from some citizens," according to an ISAF statement released Saturday.

Provincial Gov. Mohammed Neseri warned residents to do their part to protect themselves.

"Insurgents cannot intimidate citizens if everyone is united in defending their homes and their villages," Neseri said, according to the statement.

The top coalition commander in Afghanistan has warned of a likely increase in high-profile attacks by insurgents looking to demonstrate their ability to strike. In a letter this month to ISAF forces, Army Gen. David Petraeus said the attacks may increase the risk of civilian casualties and put Afghan and ISAF forces in difficult situations.

The attack Saturday in the northern Takhar province town of Taloqan occurred at a high-level meeting of Afghan and coalition officials in a governor's office, a provincial spokesman said.

The officials were gathered to talk about security following a May 18 protest in front of a NATO compound where German soldiers opened fire on demonstrators, who they claim had become violent, German Defense Minister Thomas de Maiziere told reporters.

The blast killed seven people, including Gen. Dawood Dawood -- a well-known Afghan regional police chief who was one of the country's lead point-persons in eradicating opium poppy fields, said Faiz Mohammad Tawhidi, a spokesman for Takhar provincial Gov. Abdul Jabar Taqwa.

Dawood was a veteran anti-Soviet and anti-Taliban resistance commander, he said.

Also killed were two German soldiers, a provincial police chief, the governor's secretary and two guards, according to Tawhidi and Qari Sadiqullah, secretary of the provincial council.

Among the eight wounded was Maj. Gen. Markus Kneip, a veteran German officer and the regional head of the ISAFacross nine provinces of northern Afghanistan, de Maiziere said.

The provincial governor was also wounded, Taqwa said.

In a phone call to CNN, Taliban spokesman Zabulliah Mojahed claimed responsibility for the attack.

Mojahed said Taliban fighters targeted the officials because they were making plans in the meeting to "launch an operation against the Taliban in the north."

"After our mujahedeen found (out) about this meeting, then it was targeted by our suicide bomber," he told CNN from an unknown location.

ISAF spokesman Rear Adm. Vic Beck condemned what he called "the senseless murder of these Afghans and coalition members who have fought so hard for the people of Afghanistan.

"ISAF will remain relentless in our support to our Afghan partners to find those responsible and bring them to justice," he said.

The attack came two days after eight U.S. troops died when two improvised explosive devices blew up in Shorabak District, about 100 kilometers (62 miles) south of Kandahar, according to ISAF.

That region -- on the opposite end of the country from where Saturday's attack occurred -- has been the site of a spate of recent violence after Taliban forces unleashed multiple attacks earlier this month in their so-called spring offensive.

CNN's Larry Shaughnessy and Chelsea J. Carter contributed to this story.

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