Kabul: Taliban gunmen shot dead a senior Supreme Court official, Atiqullah Raufi, in Kabul on Saturday, police said. This is the latest insurgent attack in the Afghan capital as the US-led North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) force prepares to end its 13-year war on December 31 after it failed to thwart the Taliban insurgency.

“Around 9 am, unknown gunmen shot dead Atiqullah Raufi, head of secretariat for the court, as he was heading to work,” Kabul police spokesman Hashmat Stanikzai said. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid in a text message claimed responsibility for the killing, but did not say why he was attacked.