THE ‘LONG WAR’ JUST GOT LONGER: Taliban Blows Up Chief Afghan Peace Negotiator With Turban Bomb

REUTERS: A Taliban suicide bomber on Tuesday killed former Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani and head of a council tasked with trying to negotiate a political end to the war, in what analysts called a blow to peace efforts. The killing underscored doubts over the ability of fledgling Afghan security forces to protect even the most prominent politicians as U.S.-led forces ready to pull out by 2014. “A Taliban member who went to Rabbani’s house (in the heavily guarded diplomatic enclave) for peace talks detonated a bomb hidden in his turban,” a statement by the Kabul police chief’s office said. President Barack Obama called the killing of Rabbani, head of Afghanistan’s High Peace Council, a tragic loss but said work needed to continue to bring elements of Afghan society together to end the years of violence. A police source said Masoom Stanekzai, a senior adviser to President Hamid Karzai, was badly injured in the attack. It was the highest profile assassination in Afghanistan since the younger half-brother of President Hamid Karzai, Ahmad Wali Karzai, was killed at his home in July by a highly trusted family security guard. It also came just a week after a deadly 20-hour siege by militants in the fortified capital, which illustrated the strength of the Taliban after nearly a decade of war. MORE