A suicide bomber on a motorised rickshaw has killed the deputy governor of Afghanistan's Ghazni province and five others.
Deputy governor Mohammad Kazim Allahyar and several men travelling with him died instantly when the attacker detonated his explosives at the back of their car near the airport in Ghazni city, provincial police chief Delawar Zahid told Reuters.
Mr Allahyar's son, nephew and driver were among the dead, along with two civilians passing by on a bicycle, the police chief said.
He had earlier said three bodyguards died along with Allahyar's relatives.
President Hamid Karzai's palace said four bodyguards and Allahyar's son died.
Another 17 people have been taken to the provincial hospital for treatment and are in good condition, a doctor told Reuters.
The car Allahyar was travelling in - a Toyota Corolla rather than the armoured vehicles used by many officials - was almost destroyed by the blast.
The deputy governor had already escaped one assassination attempt earlier this year.
Ghazni, which is about a two-hour drive to the southwest of Kabul, has seen a steady increase in violence.
NATO and Afghan forces fight regularly with insurgents in the area.
However, there has not been a push to roll back their gains comparable to efforts in the southern Taliban heartlands of Kandahar and Helmand.
Afghanistan is under renewed scrutiny after this month's parliamentary election was hit by violence and widespread complaints of fraud, the second flawed poll in 13 months.
