The chairman of the Afghan High Peace Council, Burhanuddin Rabbani, has been killed with several other people in a bomb attack in Kabul, officials say.
Mr Rabbani was killed at his home by a suicide attacker who officials believe had concealed a bomb in his turban.He was meeting members of the Taliban at the time. The council leads Afghan efforts to negotiate with the Taliban.
Mr Rabbani is a former president of Afghanistan and also led the main political opposition in the country.
A senior adviser to the peace council, Masoom Stanakzai, is also thought to have been seriously wounded in the attack.
On hearing the news Afghan President Hamid Karzai decided to cut short his visit to the US but briefly met President Barack Obama, who condemned the killing as a "tragic loss". Both men reinforced their determination to continue the quest for peace.
President Karzai said: "This is a sad day for us in Afghanistan but a day of unity and day of continuity for our efforts."
Abdullah Abdullah, the leader of the opposition in the Afghan parliament, said Mr Rabbani's killing was "a big loss for all the people of Afghanistan", describing the former president as a man who "strove until his last breath to bring peace".
Nato and the International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) condemned the attack, with Isaf commander Gen John R Allen saying that "the face of the peace initiative has been attacked".
'Special message'
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Mr Rabbani will be a hard man for President Karzai to replace.
Although he was an ethnic Tajik leader from the north, Mr Rabbani had support in Pashtun areas in the south and east. He was seen as one of Afghanistan's cleverest and most influential politicians.
And he had some of the tightest security of any Afghan leader. His convoys were always heavily protected and included several identical vehicles with blacked-out windows to confuse potential attackers.
The best guess is that he was killed by Taliban who did not support the talks initiative he led. Karzai supporters see his death as a blow to peace efforts, but how much he achieved is unclear.
His peace council is credited with bringing over hundreds of Taliban field commanders, but to date Mr Rabbani had failed to woo any senior figures away from the insurgency.
Analysis
Although he was an ethnic Tajik leader from the north, Mr Rabbani had support in Pashtun areas in the south and east. He was seen as one of Afghanistan's cleverest and most influential politicians.
And he had some of the tightest security of any Afghan leader. His convoys were always heavily protected and included several identical vehicles with blacked-out windows to confuse potential attackers.
The best guess is that he was killed by Taliban who did not support the talks initiative he led. Karzai supporters see his death as a blow to peace efforts, but how much he achieved is unclear.
His peace council is credited with bringing over hundreds of Taliban field commanders, but to date Mr Rabbani had failed to woo any senior figures away from the insurgency.
Mr Rabbani's residence is in a prosperous district of Kabul, on the edge of a high security area close to the US embassy and the district where the Taliban launched a 20-hour attack last week, leaving 25 dead.
The attack is likely to fuel concerns over security in the capital. Security forces have closed off a number of streets in the district and the police are out in force, reports say. Speaking to the BBC's Bilal Sarwary in Kabul, counter-terrorism officials described the sequence of events leading up to the killing.
They said two Taliban commanders had arrived with Mr Stanakzai in a red Corolla to meet Mr Rabbani.
The commanders told household staff that they had special messages from the Taliban for Mr Rabbani.
The officials added that as guards approached to search the men, Mr Stanakzai shouted: "We know them. They are our own people."
As one of the Taliban commanders went to embrace the former president, he detonated explosives concealed in his turban.
"No-one was checked. Shortly after that we heard an explosion. Everyone started shouting: 'They killed Ustaad Ustaad [a term of respect]'," a member of Mr Rabbani's household said.
''One of the attackers' heads is missing. The second attacker is arrested but he is injured. The driver was arrested before he could flee," intelligence sources told the BBC.
Our correspondent adds that Tuesday's meeting with the Taliban commanders had been kept secret, with some of Mr Rabbani's aides being informed about it just a few hours before it had begun.
He says Mr Rabbani had returned to Afghanistan from abroad a few days ago specifically for the meeting.
When the High Peace Council was set up in October 2010, Mr Karzai described it as the greatest hope for the Afghan people and called on the Taliban to seize the opportunity and help bring peace.
Mr Rabbani (centre) had been overseeing efforts to persuade the Taliban to give up arms Mr Rabbani was ousted as president by the Taliban in 1996. After that he became the nominal head of the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance, made of mostly non-Pashtun ethnic groups.
When they swept back into Kabul, backed by US forces, and toppled the Taliban in 2001, he was still recognised by the UN as the official president of Afghanistan.
Series of assassinations But he was a controversial figure who had many enemies, including the Taliban, the BBC's David Loyn in Kabul says. Many were surprised when Mr Rabbani was put in charge of peace talks.
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Burhanuddin Rabbani
- Senior figure in the mujahideen who fought against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s
- President of Afghanistan from 1992 to 1996 and then again in 2001
- Senior member of the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance from 1996 to 2001
- Made leader of Peace Council constituted by Afghan President Hamid Karzai tasked with negotiating with the Taliban
In the 1970s it was Mr Rabbani who founded the parties that ended up becoming the Afghan mujahideen who took on the Soviets, and many blame him and his friends for the death and destruction of the civil war days.
Although people will mourn his violent death, there are also many who will celebrate it, our correspondent adds.However, analysts say, his death will not necessarily prevent peace talks from continuing.
The killing is the latest in a series of assassinations of senior politicians and security commanders across the country.
In July, President Karzai's half-brother Ahmed Wali Karzai was killed at his home in Kandahar, southern Afghanistan, by his own head of security. Two months earlier, Gen Daud Daud, the top police commander in northern Afghanistan was killed in a suicide bomb attack.
The Taliban have claimed responsibility for most of these killings.
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