Former Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani attends a ceremony with local officials as more than 100 members of the Taliban surrender themselves to the Afghan government Aug. 26, 2011, in Badakhshan, Afghanistan. (Getty Images)

 An unidentified attacker on Tuesday killed the leader of Afghanistan’s High Peace Council, a former president of the country whose main responsibility was negotiating a political end to the war with the Taliban. The assassination was a serious blow to any notion of reconciliation with the Taliban.

  

Afghan officials said the peace council leader, former President Burhanuddin Rabbani, was likely killed by a suicide bomber in or near his heavily guarded home in the Afghan capital, Kabul. The assassination coincided with President Hamid Karzai’s visit to the United Nations General Assembly, where he was scheduled to confer with President Obama about the war, and there were unconfirmed reports that Mr. Karzai was cutting short his visit to return home.

At least three other people were wounded in the attack, Afghani officials said. Ministers of the Afghan government raced to the scene and streets were closed off near Mr. Rabbani’s home.  


For more on the life of fmr. afghan president Rabbani, go to the source of this article here:     http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/21/world/asia/Burhanuddin-Rabbani-afghan-peace-council-leader-assassinated.html