Karzai weeping as bombing kills an Afghan official

A suicide bomber murdered a deputy regional governor and five others Tuesday in eastern Afghanistan, police said. Later, a weepy President Hamid Karzai decried the violence, fretting that young people will choose to flee their country.

The bomber rammed a motorized rickshaw loaded with explosives into one of two vehicles in a convoy taking Deputy Gov. Khazim Allayar to his office in Ghazni city. His adult son, a nephew and a bodyguard were also killed, said Ghazni province police chief Zarawar Zahid. Two civilians nearby were also killed in the blast and a number of others wounded, he said.

Afghan government officials are prime targets for the Taliban and other insurgent groups that have instituted an assassination campaign against people who work with either the Afghan government or NATO forces. Allayar, who held the post for more than seven years, survived a bombing attempt just two months ago in Ghazni city. Karzai condemned the attack in a statement. He then called on his fellow Afghans to decry such violence during a speech in the capital about literacy efforts in the country.

"Our sons cannot go to school because of bombs and suicide attacks. Our teachers cannot go to school because of clashes and threats of murder. Schools are closed," he said, adding he worries that those among Afghanistan's youth who can flee will abandon their country, go to school abroad and become estranged from Afghanistan.