Taliban murders Afghanistan's top policewoman

The taliban afraid of women. Independent

The most prominent female police officer in Afghanistan has been murdered by the Taliban, the latest victim in a vicious campaign against women in public life by Muslim fundamentalists.

Malalai Kakar, who specialised in rescuing abused women, was shot dead outside her home in Kandahar in an attack which also left her 15-year-old son, one of her six children, critically injured.

"We killed Malalai Kakar," said a Taliban spokesman, Yousuf Ahmadi "She was our target, and we successfully eliminated our target." The Islamist group had previously carried out several unsuccessful attacks on her life, and those of her female colleagues, before yesterday's lethal ambush.