The ambassador of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to Afghanistan has been wounded in the southeastern city of Kandahar in a bomb blast that also killed at least seven people.
The attack on Tuesday, which took place during a meeting between senior officials and diplomats from the UAE embassy, wounded 17 others, including the provincial governor.
In a statement, the UAE foreign ministry stated it was "following the heinous terrorist attack on the guesthouse of the Kandahar governor which resulted in the injury of his excellency Juma Mohammed Abdullah al-Kaabi, UAE ambassador to the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, and a number of Emirati diplomats".
The diplomats, who were in Kandahar on a humanitarian mission, were expected to open a number of UAE-backed projects as part of an aid programme to Afghanistan.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
Earlier on Tuesday, two suicide blasts near Afghanistan's parliament in Kabul killed at least 30 people and wounded 80, in an attack claimed by the Taliban.
In a separate incident also on Tuesday, a suicide bomber on foot struck in the southern Helmand province, killing at least seven people, officials stated.
Aljazeera