Taliban sofa bomb kills prominent Afghan election candidate

A former Communist general turned prominent politician has been killed by a Taliban bomb hidden in his sofa as he campaigned for this weekend's parliamentary election in Afghanistan.

Abdul Jabar Qahraman became the 10th election candidate to die ahead of Saturday's polls when the blast tore through his campaign office.

The Taliban took responsibility for the attack, which also killed three of Mr Qahraman's companions in the capital of Helmand province.

A Taliban statement said they had killed “a renowned communist".

The dead candidate had been a key figure in the dying days of Afghanistan's Soviet-backed government, holding military power in the south of the country until he fled into exile in 1993.

After the fall of the Taliban he return to Afghanistan and was elected as an MP, recently advising President Ashraf Ghani on security in the south of the country.

His assassination came amid final preparations for Saturday's poll where nearly nine million registered voters have a chance to choose MPs for 250 seats in parliament.

The Taliban have ordered a boycott of the election and threatened to attack anyone involved in what they call a bogus American vote.

Mr Ghani said that “such brutal acts of the terrorists and their supporters cannot weaken people's trust in the peaceful and democratic processes”.

Seven other people were wounded in the blast, the Helmand governor's spokesman told Tolo News, adding that the bomb had been placed in Mr Qahraman's sofa.

The death toll in the country's long-running insurgency has escalated in recent months, with concerns Saturday's polling will be a flashpoint for Taliban violence.

Last week 22 people were killed in an explosion at an election rally for a woman candidate in the north eastern province of Takhar, while dozens of police have been killed or wounded in attacks on checkpoints this week.

The election is already three years late, having been postponed by political disputes and rows over electoral reforms.

Saturday's polling is a test of Afghan government authority as Donald Trump is increasingly frustrated with a lack of progress in America's longest war.