A roadside bomb killed an intelligence official, three bodyguards and one other man in southern Afghanistan yesterday, officials said.

The blast in Nadali district of Helmand province killed Mohammad Ali Borak, a local official of the National Security Administration, said.

"It was a remote-controlled bomb," Sherzad said and blamed Taliban for the attack.

Sherzad said an electrician who had been travelling in the same vehicle as Borak and his bodyguards was also killed.

The attack was the latest in a spate on violence to hit Helmand. On Friday, Taliban killed the chief government official in Sangin district, hours after police killed eight guerrillas and arrested 10.

Meanwhile, a French special forces officer was killed yesterday in clashes with Taliban forces in southern Afghanistan, the defence ministry said.

The statement gave no details of the death of the officer of a marine commando unit, the second French soldier to be killed in action.

PHOTO CAPTION

Pakistanis beat effigies of U.S. President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair during a strike in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border city of Chaman March 3, 2006. (REUTERS)