Afghanistan deputy spy chief among 23 dead in blast

By Rafiq Sherzad

MEHTAR LAM, Afghanistan (Reuters) - A suicide bomber killed Afghanistan's powerful deputy head of intelligence and at least 22 other people in an attack on Wednesday claimed by the Taliban.

Abdullah Laghmani, deputy head of the National Directorate for Security, was one the highest-ranking security officials in President Hamid Karzai's government to be killed in the conflict. The Taliban said he was targeted for assassination.

In other developments, new preliminary vote tallies showed Karzai inching closer to a first-round victory in last month's presidential election but the outcome remains so close that fraud investigations could decide if a run-off is needed.

The poll was a major test for Karzai after eight years in power and for U.S. President Barack Obama's strategy of sending more troops to fight an increasingly lethal foe in what Washington sees as the frontline in its war on terrorism.

Laghman province governor Lutfullah Mashal, who escaped injury in the latest attack, told Reuters the bomber burst from a shop and blew himself up while officials were getting into cars outside a mosque in the provincial capital Mehtar Lam.

He said the 23 dead included two provincial officials as well as Abdullah Laghmani.

A Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, said the Islamist group had sent a suicide bomber to carry out the Mehtar Lam attack.

"Laghmani was one of the most important targets for the Taliban that we successfully eliminated," Mujahid said by telephone from an undisclosed location.

KARZAI LEADS

Afghanistan's election commission released new partial results from the presidential election which showed Karzai maintaining his lead over his main rival, former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah, 47.3 percent to 32.6 percent.

The tally, with more than 60 percent of polling stations counted, suggests Karzai could yet be on course to a win in a single round, although the outcome is close enough that investigations into fraud allegations could prove decisive.

Votes have yet to be tallied from many parts of the south where Karzai draws strong support. Abdullah accuses Karzai's camp of stuffing ballot boxes there on a massive scale.

An independent Electoral Complaints Commission, headed by a Canadian, is probing 652 complaints it considers serious enough to alter the outcome. It can set aside questionable ballots or order results from whole districts be excluded from the count.

A second round run-off must be held if no candidate wins more than 50 percent, most likely in early October.

President Obama's envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, said the process of counting ballots and investigating fraud needs to run its course.