In Afghanistan, the deputy mayor of Kandahar has been assassinated as he took part in evening prayers. Zalmai Ayoubi, a spokesman for the Kandahar government said Azizullah Yarmal, 45, was praying in a mosque in the Sadoza Dana neighborhood around 9 p.m. last night when an attacker walked in and shot him in the back of the head. Ayoubi said police are investigating the killing. In another incident in Kandahar, a donkey-towed cart loaded with explosives and a remote control detonator blew up at a police post, killing at least three people and wounding four. Ayoubi said three children were killed by the blast, and two police and two civilians were wounded. A spokesman for the Taliban which claimed responsibility for the bombing, said 11 people were killed in the explosion. Spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmadi said the bombing was in response to the planned U.S.-led offensive to oust Taliban fighters from the volatile Kandahar region this summer.